m 




Glass- 
Book. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



HEALTH STRENGTH 
AND HAPPINESS 



By DR. SALEEBY 

THE CYCLE OF LIFE 

EVOLUTION THE MASTER KEY 

WORRY, THE DISEASE OF THE AGE 

THE CONQUEST OF CANCER: A PLAN OF 
CAMPAIGN 

BIOLOGY AND HISTORY (Pamphlet) 



Health Strength 
and Happiness 

A BOOK OF PRACTICAL ADVICE 



BT 

C. W. SALEEBY, M.D., F.R.S. Edin. 



NEW YORK 
MITCHELL KENNERLEY 

2 East 29th Street 

LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS 

MCMVIII 



Copyright 1908 by 
Mitchell Kennerley 



-*$ 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

OCT 29 1908 

Copyright Entry 

CLASS C^ J^Xc, NO, 

COPY 0. 



PREFACE 

This book is written for the young man, the man of 
middle age, and the elderly— not least for the prema- 
turely elderly. Any attempt to include the hygiene of 
childhood would have been ridiculous, for it is my pur- 
pose to regard the mind as the foremost thing in man 
at all ages, and a proper discussion of childhood would 
therefore involve the treatment of what we call educa- 
tion. The child is not merely a peculiar animal, as 
many seem to think, nor yet a discarnate mind of small 
size, as the old pedagogy thought, but a being com- 
posed of mental and physical factors all characteristic 
and yet protean. It is the most fascinating subject 
in the world, and I propose to devote a separate volume 
to it. 

Similarly as regards woman. The greater part of 
the characters of men and women are not male and 
female, but simply human. The principles of hygiene 
are fundamentally the same for both. The needs of the 
human being as regards air and food and clothing and 
exercise are almost identical, if not absolutely so, for 
the two sexes. There is included in these pages the 
discussion of all these sexless questions, which are at 
least as urgent for women as for men, and of greater 
racial importance in their case. The hair, for instance, 
is sexless, and the principles of its care — to which we 
5 



6 PREFACE 

shall condescend to allude, condescension though it 
certainly be — are the same for both sexes. In this 
particular case man may learn a great deal from the 
practice of woman, which is obviously much more suc- 
cessful than his own. 

There will remain, however, a number of momentous 
questions which concern woman alone directly — though 
all coming ages through her. It has to be asked how 
far "Woman in Transition" is woman in transition 
from womanhood to something which is not manhood 
and for which no word exists. The fact that some 
women are now earning their living as steeple jacJcs, or 
whatever it may be, must not deter us from asking 
totally without reference to what our grandmothers 
would have thought, whether the hygiene of woman- 
hood is really compatible in the highest degree with 
any profession but one — and that one supreme; and 
an effort should be made to put a period to the unwis- 
dom of which the bitter fruit is so much hysteria, neur- 
asthenia, and chronic illness of all sorts amongst women. 
To this whole subject, which seems to me to have the 
gravest social consequences, I also propose to devote 
a special volume. Meanwhile the whole of the present 
volume is relevant to the needs of women considered 
simply as human beings, possessed of such souls and 
appetites and physical needs as men possess, and of 
at least equal importance in the scale of being. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. INTRODUCTION 9 

II. THE NEW ASCETICISM 14 

III. THE NEED OP AIR 25 

IV. THE NEED OP LIGHT 43 

V. THE NEED OF CLOTHES ■ 50 

VI. CLOTHING IN DETAIL 64 

VII. THE NEED OF EXERCISE 83 

VIII. THE NEED OF SLEEP 102 

IX. CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 131 

X. THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 152 

XI. TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 190 

XII. IN PRAISE OF MILK 204 

XIII. IN PRAISE OF BREAD 213 

XIV. FOODS AND APPETITES 225 

XV. THE USE OF MEAT 250 

XVI. THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 266 

XVII. THE CARE OF THE BOWEL 281 

XVIII. THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES 288 

XIX. CARE OF THE TEETH 296 

XX. ON GROWING STOUT AND GROWING OLD 303 

XXI. THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 315 

XXII. THE CARE OF THE SENSES 325 

XXIII. THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 344 

XXIV. CONCERNING HEREDITY 366 
XXV. THE TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 384 



Health Strength 
and Happiness 

i 

INTRODUCTION 

Such books as this might be are amongst the chief 
makers of hypochondriacs — people who make them- 
selves ill by trying to keep well. Of all the absurd 
uses to which to put one's mind this is chief — to make 
a nuisance of the body. In order to preserve the health 
of the liver, for instance, the first necessity is to forget 
that one possesses a liver. Probably one does, but 
many people make themselves ill by concern about 
organs which, as like as not, they do not possess. The 
case of that nightmare, the stomach, is quite similar, 
and my foremost piece of advice on the subject of food 
should be, I almost believe, to take no one's advice on 
this subject. We think far too much about our bodies 
nowadays, and doctors are not without their share of 
blame in this respect. The body is a necessary evil, and 
like other necessary evils should be ignored as far as pos- 
sible, just as the existence of unnecessary evils should be 
shouted from the house-tops in season and out of sea- 
son. Thus, if I allude to anatomy in the following 
pages, I shall do so in a quite casual and incidental 
fashion. It is possible for every one but the surgeon 
to know too much anatomy. Not one pain in a thou- 
sand in the appendix region has anything to do with 



10 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

appendicitis, and you are preserved from faulty diagno- 
sis in this respect if you do not know where your appen- 
dix is. As a matter of fact, no one can tell where his 
appendix is until an operation is performed, for its site 
is most variable. 

My object is to enable the reader to reduce to a 
minimum the conscious attention demanded by his body, 
whether in health or in disease. To this end we shall 
have to discuss many precise details, to issue warnings, 
and to indict many prevalent habits. This knowledge, 
however, will not fetter but liberate. To know what 
to fear is to know what not to fear. To acquire sensi- 
ble habits is not necessarily more difficult than to 
acquire senseless habits; and once a habit is formed, 
the conscious mind can turn its attention elsewhere. 
No one thinks less about his body than I do, and this 
is the chief reason why I have so little occasion to think 
about it. If I happen to know the usual rate of my 
pulse, that is only because this is sometimes a conve- 
nient means, as Galileo knew, of measuring time when a 
watch is not at hand or when the observation is not 
desired to be obtrusive. I have not seen my tongue 
for years — and have not missed much, I am sure. Un- 
like children, tongues should be heard but not seen. 

Almost the only certain fact of dietetics is that one 
man's meat is another man's poison, just as one man's 
fresh air is another man's draught. We are assured 
that the amylolytic stage of gastric digestion occupies 
about twenty minutes to half-an-hour. It is heartily 
welcome ; but the primeval savage who cooked his hare 
when he could catch it, and starved when he could not, 
has the laugh of the dyspeptic physiologist. To say 
"Stomach, be thou my cross," is as foolish as to say 
"Stomach, be thou my god" : the only wise thing to say 
is, "Stomach, mind thy business, and I will mind mine." 
There is going to be no truckling to stomachs or livers 
in these pages. 



INTRODUCTION 11 

I belong to no special school of medical or dietetic 
thought, except that which believes in the healing 
power of Nature, the vis medicatrix Natura, and in 
the power of the mind over the body. I am not a 
Fletcherite nor a vegetarian, nor a fruitarian, nor a 
Christian Scientist. I do not worship at the shrine of 
muscle, and I consume many uric-acid yielding articles 
of diet. The most amazing and almost the most sig- 
nificant thing about man the animal to me is the illimi- 
table variety and diversity of the practices which are 
compatible with his health. I see athletic records 
broken, and admirable mental energy exhibited by 
rigid vegetarians ( so-called) , but am sure that they do 
not enjoy better health or turn out more work than 
others, who eat what they like, when they like, and 
because they like it, omit a meal or take two for one as 
convenience dictates, and find themselves just as well 
when they take no exercise as when they play two 
games of cricket or hockey a week. This adaptability 
of man, which doubtless exceeds that of any other liv- 
ing creature, animal or vegetable, is a capital fact in 
history and has helped to make him the lord of the 
earth, and the most widely distributed creature upon 
its surface. It makes supremely silly all the systems 
and doctrines which ignore it and declare that this 
way alone lie health and happiness. Our purpose will 
be, whilst insisting upon this extraordinary adapta- 
bility of man, to point out its limits and the probable 
price to be paid for exceeding them. Man lives in the 
Tropics and in the Polar regions, and no other animal 
can compare with him in this respect ; but doubtless he 
has an optimum temperature, at which he thrives best, 
just as microbes have. It will be our business to indi- 
cate these best average conditions for human life, whilst 
recognising and welcoming the existence of many per- 
sons who thrive and have thrived upon their defiance. 

One thing, however, with all his powers of adapta- 



12 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

tion, man will not stand, and that is the constant and 
solicitous contemplation of his own person. With 
all its quackery and nonsense, Christian Science has 
recognised this truth as no religious or medical cor- 
poration has recognised it hitherto : and this it is which 
suffices to explain its success. The common medical 
attitude, in Great Britain, at any rate, is to regard 
Christian Science as pure humbug, and to load it with 
abuse. This is not found convincing by the man whom 
Christian Science has served; and it seems very foolish 
to those who have any acquaintance with the subject of 
therapeutic suggestion and its application in the hyp- 
notic state, a great healing power which conservatism 
and prejudice have long ignored and still ignore in this 
country. The reasonable attitude for the man who has 
any notion of what is meant by natural selection or the 
survival of the fittest, is to ask what are the factors 
which give this thing its survival-value. To answer 
self-deception is to beg the question. If a man thinks 
he has no pain, he has no pain ; and this is the most 
that you can say for yourself at any time. Christian 
Science has achieved the exploitation of a great truth 
— doubtless only a half or three-quarter truth, but still 
truth so far — and it is this that has given it its success. 
Furthermore, its philosophy is sound as a working 
hypothesis, at least. 

If I were in medical practice the first question I 
should feel inclined to ask of half my patients would 
be, Are you a body or a soul? The question is philo- 
sophically illegitimate, we know; but it is practically 
valid ,uid momentous. Evolutionist though I be, I 
cc fess myself somewhat weary of the glorious truth 
that man is an animal. "The question," said Disraeli, 
"is whether man is an ape or an angel, and I am on 
the side of the angels." The truth is, of course, that 
he is both, and that a house divided against itself can- 
not stand. For practical purposes, a man has to decide 



INTRODUCTION 13 

whether he is a soul or a body, or, if both, which shall 
be master. The body is a good servant but a bad 
master. The difference between man and a microbe 
or a monkey is that such rudimentary souls as the lat- 
ter possess are the servants of the body, whilst the 
body of man is his servant. This is the truth which 
Christian Science recognises in its exaggerated way. 
We shall here assume that we discuss not a more or 
less sensitive and conscious piece of machinery but an 
Ego or a Self, possessed of such machinery and depend- 
ent upon it as upon an indispensable servant. We shall 
attempt to define the conditions of bodily health, not 
as an end in itself, but as a necessary condition of 
mental happiness, which is, legitimately construed, the 
legitimate end of human existence. Thus we shall seek 
to state not how to have a healthy stomach, but how 
not to know you have a stomach — which comes to the 
same thing. The maintenance of health depends not 
upon continuous attention to bodily needs — which will 
wreck the health of the strongest — but on the forma- 
tion of healthy habits ; and the value of such habits is 
that, once formed, they can be left to the sub-conscious 
mind, whilst the conscious self, instead of feeling itself 
for ever chained to the body of this death, can dance 
in its fetters. 



14 II 

THE NEW ASCETICISM 

The cardinal principle of all asceticism, new or old, 
is surely that the mind or soul or psyche is the all- 
Man is a important part of man, and that his body 
mind has no place or purpose or warrant but 

to serve it. This is a supremely great and noble con- 
ception, of which there is need in every age, and cer- 
tainly not least need to-day. It is to our discredit, 
indeed, that at the present time, when the psychical 
factors more completely outweigh the physical factors 
than ever before in the struggle for individual, national, 
and racial existence, we should yet have to learn this 
lesson of the ancients, amongst whom such physical 
factors as muscular strength and endurance were indeed 
of far greater relative value for life — as they are, of 
course, amongst the lower animals. If, then, it be the 
principle of all asceticism that there is nothing great 
in man but mind — mind, indeed, being the only impor- 
tant matter — none of us can hesitate to respect it. Our 
contempt, or disdain, or disregard of asceticism, as it 
has been practised before our time, cannot possibly be 
based upon any question of the truth of the underlying 
idea. He who, at whatever cost or under whatever 
delusions, seeks to treat his body in such a fashion as 
will make for the dignity and worth of his mind, has 
a high ideal of personal duty, and is noble and rever- 
end, however lamentable the result or ludicrous the 
method. 

The old asceticism believed that a whole truth and 
not a half truth was expressed by the doctrine of the 
The old antagonism between the interests of mind 

asceticism and body. So far as the supreme interests 
of the soul were concerned, the body was simply an 
enemy and a nuisance. Everything that it desired, or 
that encouraged it, was necessarily an affront to its 
irreconcilable enemy, the soul. Only by consistently 



THE NEW ASCETICISM ,15 

thwarting, starving, repressing the body, could a man 
do his duty to his higher part; and there was no dis- 
charge in that war. 

Now, before we consider how modern knowledge 
modifies this ancient view of the relation The body a 
between the physical and psychical parts of burden — 
man, let us remind ourselves that the burden of the 
body is a tyranny and a nuisance to-day. 

Even the case of a man who enjoys perfect health 
suffices to point the argument. To begin with, there 
is the need of sleep, upon which the nervous system 
insists. About one-third of our lives is thus vegetably 
spent. A problem of the future will be to dispose ol 
this necessity, which so seriously reduces the sum of 
our brief consciousness. In this respect, natural 
selection, which now acts mainly on such factors, will 
doubtless help to evolve a race that is not compelled to 
sleep one-third of its life away, but sleeps deeply, i. e. 
quickly. Still within the limits of perfect health, con- 
sider the necessity for clothing, which compels us to 
devote much of our lives to dressing and undressing. 
Then this body of ours is incessantly soiling itself and 
becoming soiled from without, and we have to wait 
upon its need for cleanliness daily. And there are our 
nails, which we cannot even prevent, once and for all, 
from continuing to grow, and which will not keep clean 
for an hour at a time. Considered sub specie aeterni- 
tatis, what can well be more utterly beneath the 
dignity of a thinking being, than the necessity to 
devote part of his brief span of life to waiting upon 
the nails which his body inherits from the days when 
claws were necessary implements of life? Then again, 
our hair: the need for brushing the hair is a daily 
annoyance to which custom never inures at least one 
man, and never will — until, perchance, it departs and 
gives him the liberty from bodily tyranny which, in 
this respect, the bald man enjoys. Shaving, I take it, 



16 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

is wholly incompatible with the principles of the new 
asceticism, except for the surgeon and the dentist ; but 
my hopes that the Rontgen rays would prove to be a 
safe depilatory and so liberate my sex from the 
tyranny of the chin, have been unrealised. Alas, that 
a man should be shaving his chin or trimming Ins beard 
when he might be doing any of the thousand tilings 
worthy of the state of man, and inexhaustible did he 
live for ever! And all this, and endless eating and 
drinking, and not one of these things can be done once 
for all and be done with! Yet this is nothing to the 
burden of the body when it is not well. Perhaps we 
should realise the weight of this burden of ours if, 
instead of our own bodies, it were some one else's upon 
which we had to* wait incessantly, feeding and scrubbing, 
and clipping and paring, and dressing and undressing 
it day after day, and never a single holiday in our 
lives. Thus reflecting, one may be excused for the wish 
that it were possible to be rid of the body altogether — 
say by taking it out and dropping it in the gutter 
some dark night. 

However, we know nowadays that the body and the 
mind are intimately related in such wise that injury 
but a good *o * ne one is i n J ul T t° "^ ne other; and tins 
servant — fact it is which must differentiate the new 
from the old asceticism, the new from the old idea of the 
whole duty of health. The body is a servant which, 
however troublesome and vexatious, and even humili- 
ating, in its reminders of the brute, is yet indispensable 
to our welfare. Even apart from the consideration 
that this is a very old servant of the family, we find 
that it pays us to treat him well. But the principle of 
the new asceticism is that our treatment of this trouble- 
some retainer and our discharge of our duty to him must 
never be such that he becomes the master. His welfare 
is never an end in itself. If the eye or the hand or the 
foot offends us, it were well to pluck them from us or 



THE NEW ASCETICISM 17 

cut them off and maintain the integrity and dignity of 
the psyche, even though the maiming of the body be the 
price we have to pay. The new asceticism must assert 
the value and the duty of exercise, but it has only con- 
tempt for the ludicrous cult of muscle which is one of the 
follies of the age. The body, as we were taught nearly 
two thousand years ago, is indeed the temple of some- 
thing immeasurably higher than itself, and that some- 
thing we rightly worship, for the psyche of man is the 
highest thing we know; but whilst the worship of that 
which the temple enshrines is truly religious, the wor- 
ship of the temple itself is nothing but idolatry. It may 
well be that the modern recognition and publication of 
the facts and laws of physiology, the wide interest in 
questions of health and disease, involve the very real risk 
that the body may become the god of our idolatry. 
To the worshippers of muscle may be quoted the verse 
of the psalmist, who reminds us that the Lord "taketh 
not pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord taketh 
pleasure in those that fear him, in those that hope in 
his mercy." It is part of the business of the new 
asceticism to inquire into this matter of the legs of a 
man, and ask how they should be treated — but on the 
definite assumption that their well-being and strength 
is not an end in itself, but merely to be sought in so 
far as it serves the man himself. 

Apart from its insane and morbid form, the asceti- 
cism of the past concerned itself essentially with the 
avoidance of excess. Logically, perhaps, an( j nee( j s 
the only complete expression of the old good treat- 
asceticism should have been suicide. But m ent — 
it did not carry its belief in the antagonism between 
body and soul so far, though it often involved physical 
mutilation — which, upon my word, would be a very 
good thing for many of us in many directions. But 
in practice it was recognised that a certain minimum 
well-being of the body was indispensable for the main- 



18 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

tenance of its connection with the soul ; whilst anything 
beyond that minimum must constitute an affront and 
an injury to the soul. The new asceticism, with its 
totally different conception of the relation between our 
two components, cannot agree that the psyche is at its 
best when the body is at its worst or lowest compatible 
with life. We know the contrary. Nevertheless, such 
are our present habits that the new asceticism is bound 
to lay the major stress upon our habits of physical 
excess and only the minor stress upon our habits of 
physical defect. Except, perhaps, in the matter of 
sleep, it is not a defect in meeting the requirements of 
the body that prevents most or all of us from reaching 
our full height as intellectual and spiritual beings, or, 
if you so prefer, from enjoying life to the utmost 
possible. 

On the other hand, that physical excess against 
which the old asceticism was a protest is perhaps more 
short of markedly exemplified in ourselves than ever 
pampering in the past. Take the case of diet, for 
instance. It has now been quite definitely proved, by 
rigid experiment as contrasted with previous haphaz- 
ard observation, that practically all well-to-do people 
are guilty of excess in the matter of food and drink. 
Here, in accordance with our principles, the word excess 
is used with definite relation to the mind. It is not 
merely that we eat more than we need, it is not that 
most of us carry more fat about with us than is re- 
quired for the warmth or the protection or the reserve 
needs of the body; it is that we eat and drink more 
than is good for our minds. I refer both to quality 
and quantity of mind, and to quantity especially in 
relation to age. The lamp of genius, said Schiller, 
burns quicker than the lamp of life, and alas that it 
should be so. Quite apart from the fact of premature 
death, and that there is not one death in many thou- 



THE NEW ASCETICISM 19 

sands that is not more or less premature, what of the 
premature extinction of the mind and especially of the 
lamp of genius which expires, whilst the bodily frame 
continues to use its useless life? History is full of such 
cases, and they are to be seen all around us. The new 
asceticism will totally deny the inherent truth of Schil- 
ler's saying. There is no reason why the lamp of 
genius should burn quicker than the lamp of life. There 
are octogenarians in society to-day whose names are 
known and honoured wherever men love the light and 
the givers of light. Some of these men, though deaf 
or muscularly frail, lame, blind, physically decrepit 
and senile, are doing as good and as original and as 
fertile work now as they did in their thirties. Their 
case and many historic ones may be cited against those 
to which Schiller alluded. In these men the physical 
life has nearly burnt itself out, but the lamp of their 
genius burns as brightly as ever it did. Now, whatever 
others may care to suppose, the instructed few are very 
sure that the difference between the two sets of cases 
does not depend upon the mind in question, but upon 
the body and its treatment. If a man has good and 
fine mental qualities, and if he does his duty to his body, 
he may be assured that they will certainly not leave 
him. For this purpose we have to distinguish between 
the nervous system or the brain and the rest of the 
body. The brains of these old men to whom I allude, 
are still young brains, as the results prove. They have 
not been subjected to systematic food poisoning, or 
drink poisoning, or drug poisoning. They have always 
been their owners' first care; and so the legs of a man 
may grow lame, or the lens of his eye grow dim, or the 
joints of the little bones in his ear grow stiff, or he 
may lose a foot or a hand, or what not, but as long as 
his brain is supplied by soft arteries with pure blood, 
the man himself, as we wisely say, will be all there. 



20 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

Hence it is possible to define the principles and prac- 
tice of the new asceticism in terms which involve no 
The brain unproved or unscientific theory of the 
is the man mind, but are as concrete and practical as 
can be. We may say, simply, that the essential part 
of man is Ins nervous system. Historically, the nervous 
system was evolved as a servant of the body, intended 
to co-ordinate its parts and expedite its activities. 
The relation is now reversed, and we may conceive of 
liver and lungs and muscles and stomach as existing 
simply in order to serve the nervous system. Of this 
the chief part is the brain, and thus the new asceticism 
is entirely one with the doctrine of Professor Forel, 
the great psychologist of Zurich, that "the brain is 
the man." 1 Here is a true and simple phrase which 
may be accepted as a proximate truth by every one, 
and which commits us to no theory of the soul or the 
relation between mind and body. We shall not concern 
ourselves here with the question of the relation between 
the brain and the mind, for the sufficient reason that 
this question is superfluous for our discussion. Our 
purpose is to study the personal conditions of health 
and happiness, and here we need no deeper nor more 
precise dogma upon which to build and to which con- 
stantly to refer than "the brain is the man." The 
"average sensual man," then, is one who uses his brain 
to serve his body? to find attractive food for his stom- 
ach or diversion for the centres concerned with racial 
purposes in his spinal cord. The new ascetic, on the 
other hand, is he who uses his body to serve his brain, 
which is the substantial man. 

Instead of a metaphysical problem, then, as to brain 
and mind, all the answers to which are merely "words, 

1 "With human beings the brain is the organ of the mind. 
and there is far more justification in what we know., nowa- 
days, for saying, 'The brain is the man/ than Buffon had in 
his time for saying, 'The style is the man.' " 



THE NEW ASCETICISM 21 

words, words," we have before us a physiological prob- 
lem, practical, soluble and, in essentials, already solved 
— the problem of the relation between the brain and 
the body (or the rest of the body). The chief ques- 
tion which these chapters attempt to answer is "How 
ought I to treat my body so as best and longest to 
preserve the health, the vigour, and, therefore, the 
happiness of my brain — which, for practical purposes, 
is myself?" This is a true asceticism, vastly though it 
differs from the asceticism of the past ; and it will deter- 
mine the proportions of our study, and the amount of 
attention devoted to, let us say, diet on the one hand, 
and the care of the hair on the other. 

Now at this very point it is necessary to realise, 
very clearly and memorably, the exceeding intimacy 
of the relations which do subsist between yi' in ^ j s 
the brain and the body. We shall discover more than 
that these are all-embracing, so that our brain-deep 
doctrine that the brain is the man by no means lessens, 
but merely directs, the amount of care and interest 
which we must rightly devote to the body in general — 
not for its own good as an end in itself, but for the 
good of the brain. 

This intimacy and interdependence may be illus- 
trated by wholesale borrowing from the last chapter of 
Herbert Spencer's Autobiography, in which he advan- 
ces the doctrine that "the mind is as deep as the viscera" 
— that is to say, the internal organs. The brain is the 
man, certainly, but this requires qualification by the fact 
that the rest of the body influences it so profoundly, 
not only in respect of blood-supply and food, as to 
warrant the saying: "Mind is not as deep as the brain 
only, but is, in a sense, as deep as the viscera." 

Spencer discusses the mental effects of bodily de- 
formity or excelience s of beauty and ugliness ; and after 
referring to certain well-known facts of physiology, 
concludes that "Men's characters must be in part deter- 



22 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

mined by their visceral structures" : "an unusually act- 
ive digestion may, other things equal, be a factor in 
unusual mental energy": "the brain, depending for its 
action on a due supply of blood duly purified, must be 
affected in its efficiency by every variation in the devel- 
opment of this or that excreting organ": "not the 
quantity of mind only, but the quality of mind also, is 
in part determined by these psycho-physical connec- 
tions" : "A, who is constitutionally active, takes trouble 
in doing things for others' gratification, and is cred- 
ited as essentially altruistic; while B, though his ab- 
sence of effort for others is due to constitutional 
inactivity, and not to want of sympathy with them, is 
thought essentially egoistic": "one of the absurdities 
current among both cultured and uncultured is that 
it is as easy for one man to be active as for another." 
"So, too, in active life the visceral derangements pro- 
duced by over-work and anxiety are often followed by 
ill-temper. Even the recognised differences between 
irritability before dinner and equanimity (sometimes 
joined with generosity) after dinner, suffice to show 
that when flagging pulsation and impoverished blood 
are exchanged for vigorous pulsation and enriched 
blood, there results the change in the balance of the 
emotions which constitutes a moral change." 

In practice, then, the new asceticism centres its 
attention upon the brain as the old asceticism did upon 
Brain-crea- tne sou ^ ^ crea -tive asceticism is possible 
tion in full degree only in the bringing up of a 

child. Any one old enough to read these words is 
already past the really constructive stage of brain 
culture. Not merely will not thought nor diet nor 
exercise add another brain cell to those he already 
possesses, but the main lines of their position and 
connections have already been laid down beyond recall. 
Yet even now there remain tremendously important 
possibilities, not of creation or construction but main- 



THE NEW ASCETICISM 2S 

tenance. We may assume for the present purpose that 
the reader possesses a brain at present in fair health 
and repair. If it has already been injured in its actual 
anatomy by the poisons of alcohol or certain microbes 
of disease, or if senile changes so-called, which are 
really toxic and due to chronic food-poisoning, have 
already occurred, I cannot undertake that the follow- 
ing of my advice, even were it ideal advice, would 
restore what has been destroyed. All cell destruction is 
irreparable. This is true of the mere skin: no remedy 
for baldness will recreate a hair-follicle once destroyed, 
and the slightest cut destroys characteristic skin struc- 
tures which are lost for ever, even though it should 
heal "by first intention" within a few hours. Much 
more is this true of the brain. The effects of such 
poisoning, as merely regards function, can be recovered 
from, fortunately for all of us: but anatomical destruc- 
tion is irreparable. 

The maintenance of the brain in healthy and happy 
working order for indefinite periods is, however, as 
practicable as the re-creation of the smallest and 

simplest of its two thousand million cells, andmain- 

once destroyed, is impracticable. In this tenance 
business every bodily need and function is relevant. 
The air we breathe, the clothes we wear, the food and 
drink we consume; sleep, habits of all kinds, physical 
and mental ; the use of stimulants and narcotics ; exer- 
cise of the muscles, the senses, the emotions, and the 
intellect, all are of greater or less moment, and all must 
concern us here. 

I have said that the process of indefinite mainte- 
nance is easy and practicable, whilst that of re-creation 
is impossible. It is well to note that maintenance of 
what remains is possible at any stage, short of extreme 
old age or progressive disease such as general paraly- 
sis. I shall devote particular attention to a person 
who has a special interest for me, since his history 



24 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

involves, I believe, such serious loss to society. This is 
the middle-aged man, suffering from no actual disease, 
who is yet not so "fit" as he used to be, gives up the 
active games which he enjoyed in youth and early 
manhood, has less energy for both work and play, less 
initiative, less enthusiasm, a tendency to "put on flesh" 
— which is not flesh but fat- — and, in short, has just 
started on the downward path. There is no occasion 
for any of these things at his age. He may expect to 
lose some agility of body at forty or even less: but 
there is no need to lose agility of mind for another 
three decades at least. Just when his powers should 
be at their height, and when he has accumulated experi- 
ence, he begins to decline. Society in general suffers, 
those dependent on him suffer, and he himself suffers, 
since happiness depends on health, and his state is not 
health. 

The process is not inevitable. It can be arrested at 
any point by attention to the fundamental laws of 
bodily and mental health; and I submit the principles 
of the new asceticism to such an one on the ground that 
it is his civic, domestic, and personal duty to adopt 
them. I will not say he should be ashamed of himself, 
because he sins in ignorance, and is doubtless doing his 
best and deploring the loss of his youthful vigour and 
sense of well-being; but I am quite certain that in a 
wiser age such a man will be looked upon as the obvious 
glutton or inebriate is looked upon now. 



Ill 25 

THE NEED OF AIR 

We may begin our systematic discussion with the 
question of air, since at any moment whatever an 
adequate supply of air is an immediate and immediately 
recurrent need of all living things — vegetable, animal, 
or human. You may not require to eat or sleep for 
several hours, but you must breathe at once — you are 
breathing now. 

Another very notable advantage of this question, 
which tempts me to discuss it at once, is that it is not 
one capable of arousing hypochondria or morbid self- 
examination. A full discussion of this question cannot 
injure even the most suggestible and hysterically- 
inclined woman. I really do not think that any one 
can be too fussy about the need of pure air, though 
millions of people are too fussy about the need for its 
exclusion. Such persons have, in every case, made them- 
selves susceptible to draughts, and can undo their 
burdensome handiwork. Further, the man or woman 
who is fussy about the need for fresh air is benefiting 
other people besides himself, and earns, though he does 
not obtain, the thanks of all except the tubercle bacil- 
lus. I hope this chapter will afford fresh power to his 
elbow. * 

We human beings crawl between earth and heaven 
at the bottom of a great ocean of air, the positive 
material existence of which it is most difficult to bring 
home to the mind. We speak of "airy nothings," and 
the phrase betrays our attitude. It is not Air is 
a nothing, however, which, when in motion, material 
can blow down a city ; it is not a nothing without which 
we promptly die. The atmosphere is a material reality, 
possessed of weight and inertia, and as liable as a 
cathedral to sta}^ where it is unless and until something 
moves it. This is the capital fact with which all sys- 



26 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

terns of ventilation have to reckon and upon which they 
one and all split. 

It is almost a pity that the various ingredients of 
the atmosphere, healthy and unhealthy, are not pos- 
sessed of easily-distinguishable colours. Many current 
practices — only that current is exactly not the word — 
would then cease to afflict us. Imagine the case of a 
number of fishes living in a closed globe entirely filled 
with water. From moment to moment they are extract- 
ing from it what they need, and pouring into it the 
waste-products of their life. Every living thing has 
such waste products, and these are invariably poisons 
to it. The fishes would soon show signs of poisoning 
and die. The case is the same with flowers whose water 
is not changed. 

It is the same also with human beings in an unventi- 
lated room. Each of them is continuously extracting 
from the air its life-sustaining ingredient, and pouring 
into it his waste products. If carbonic acid happened 
to be of a rich blue colour, we should see the gas emerg- 
ing from each other's and our own mouths and noses. 
Or, if it had a pungent and characteristic odour, we 
should recognise the process which is continuously 
going on. As it is, however, we commonly notice noth- 
ing. 

Man is naturally, of course, a creature meant to 
live in the open air; and it is noteworthy that even 
Adaptability ln the twentieth century he has not yet 
here also found effective means of reproducing in- 
doors the atmospheric conditions which are really nor- 
mal to him. Before we begin to discuss the requisites, 
however, it is right to observe that the amazing adapta- 
bility of man shows itself in regard to this question 
also. Many of us survive and even thrive who spend 
nearly all the day in unventilated apartments and who 
sleep with our bedroom windows closed. The inuring 
effect of custom in either direction is difficult to over- 



THE NEED OF AIR 27 

estimate^ I remember a consumptive patient whose bed 
lay in the open air on the balcony outside the ward of 
which I had charge in Edinburgh. Whenever he was 
taken indoors to have the state of his chest examined, 
he complained of the stuffiness of the ward, yet I doubt 
whether there was a cleaner or more perfectly venti- 
lated apartment to be found anywhere. Only he had 
been educated up to a high standard. 

This is not to say for a moment that most of us do 
not pay a price for our adaptability. In many cases 
this is small or inappreciable, but in many more it 
involves lessened energy, drowsiness, headache, and the 
like, whilst in tens of thousands it is a necessary factor 
in the production of consumption. 

Not until public opinion is educated on this matter, 
which directly or indirectly concerns us all, can any 
substantial improvement be expected. To i gn0 rance 
take the case of London alone, I know of public 
no concert hall or theatre of which the opinion 
ventilation responds to even the most modest physio- 
logical requirements. I have listened to a lecture on 
respiration in the most famous lecture theatre in the 
world, in an atmosphere that illustrated everything 
which the lecturer told us to avoid. The great shops 
in Regent Street are disgraceful in this respect, and 
must be responsible for an enormous amount of minor 
illness and consumption amongst their employees. 

The law of the land is, in this respect, as ignorant 
as the general public, and I must here insist, for the 
thousandth time, upon the distinction be- And the 
tween cubic feet of space and cubic feet law 
of air. The law and the public regard the two terms 
as synonymous. Hence our recent Factory Commis- 
sion found that in many cases where the statutory 
requirements as to cubic feet of air had been met, and 
more than met, the air contained a highly excessive 
proportion of impurity. There is not a bedroom in 



28 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the land which contains sufficient air to last one sleeper 
the whole night. We talk about "change of air" ; if we 
concerned ourselves with changing the air in our. living 
and sleeping apartments we should have much less 
need of that "change of air" which we commonly mean 
by the phrase, and which, in fact, seldom involves any 
real atmospheric change at all. The real advantage 
of large "airy" rooms is not that they contain much 
air, for none contain enough, but that they permit of 
change of air sufficiently rapid to make good our 
deterioration of it, without draught. However, if I 
am writing fifty years hence, I have no doubt that I 
shall still find occasion to point out the distinction 
between cubic feet of space and cubic feet of air — which 
seems always to be as fresh as the air of those who 
fail to appreciate it is stale. 

The body has many means of protection and selec- 
tion, but it is to be noted that the determination of the 
Effects of gases which enter the blood is mechanical 
foul air and not vital. It depends upon the rela- 

tive pressures of each ingredient gas of the atmosphere 
without and within the blood. If this pressure is higher 
on the outside, the gas enters, whether it be life-giving 
oxygen or death-dealing carbonic acid or carbonic 
oxide — in which latter cases the result is blood-poison- 
ing. The noxious gases enter the blood, injuring its 
own living cells, and are carried by it to all the tis- 
sues of the body. It is a matter of no concern to us 
here whetlier the carbonic acid gas, or the gases given 
off by the skin and clothes of our neighbours or our- 
selves, are the more deleterious. All are more or less 
noxious. They directly increase our susceptibility to 
many forms of infectious disease, especially those which 
attack the respiratory organs. Vastly the most im- 
portant of these is consumption, but influenza, bron- 
chitis, pneumonia, and the common cold must be 
included. Destroying the very blood, they cause 



THE NEED OF AIR 29 

anaemia, which itself is a disease and predisposes to 
others. Interfering with the circulation, they cause 
local congestions which, when situated within the skull, 
are responsible for headache. In extreme cases this 
interference with the circulation leads to fainting. 
Acting upon the nervous system, they cause drowsiness 
and incapacity for attention. A chief educational 
reform of the future will be the ventilation of school- 
rooms, with direct effects upon the intelligence, atten- 
tion, and learning capacity of the scholars, quite 
apart, from any question of physical health. Any 
writer who could succeed in arousing public opinion on 
this subject would perform a great national service. 
It should be amongst the very first demands of all 
architects who are concerned with the building of any 
apartments in which human beings are to spend any 
appreciable time, that they be not poisoned by the 
foul gases of their own making. This is one of the 
really effective and rational ways in which to fight con- 
sumption, which can never be exterminated until the 
primal importance of fresh air is universally recognised. 

We all say we like fresh air, just as we all say we 
like music; the hygienist knows that this is cant in the 
one case and the musician in the other. Not one person 
in ten at present really likes fresh air, or has educated 
himself to know the difference between fresh air and 
stale air. What we really like is to be cosy, and since 
this is what we really like, this is what we see that we 
get. 

In this matter, as in so many others, we suffer from 
the medical superstitions of former ages. Consump- 
tion was due to "catching cold" — an ab- Medical 
solutely nonsensical phrase which should superstition 
be expunged from rational speech — and the deadly 
treatment in vogue was to wrap the patient up in 
leavy clothing, best calculated to increase his fever 
md perspiration, in a heated room with rubber edging 



30 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

to the door, and that supremely imbecile invention, a 
sand-bag, on the window-sill. We bury newspapers 
under our great bridges and architectural achievements 
for the instruction of a remote posterity. I would 
counsel the enclosure of a few sand-bags, with an 
account of their employment, in order to show what the 
age that produced Darwin and Pasteur was also capa- 
ble of, but that it is incredible that such imbecility 
should be found credible, and the joke would be thought 
a poor one. 

As everyone knows, we treat consumption differently 
now, and the conditions which often cure it will still 
oftener prevent it. But it is not so generally known 
that the case of pneumonia, the most deadly of all acute 
diseases, is following suit. This, also, was supposed 
to be due to catching cold, and was treated accordingly. 
But now the most competent physicians are finding 
that the fresh-air treatment of pneumonia vastly im- 
proves their results. I have yet to hear the disease in 
which stale air is preferable to fresh air. 

But the old delusions still persist. A man spends 
some hours in a theatre, where abundant germs of 
"Catch- various kinds are brought and spread by 

ingcold" his neighbours, and where his resistance is 
lowered by the gaseous blood-poisoning I have de- 
scribed. He goes out into the cool, clean night air, 
and develops a "cold" or influenza or bronchitis soon 
after. He is said to have caught a chill by unwisely 
exposing himself. He has certainly unwisely exposed 
himself, but it was in the theatre, and not outside it. 

The case is the same with buses and trams. Many 
people catch "colds" through travelling in these vehi- 
cles, but not through travelling on them. I do not say 
that, if the right sort of germ be encountered, and the 
resistance lowered by bad ventilation, subsequent cold 
may not act in increasing susceptibility ; but the cold 
is not the essential factor. The belief that sea-water 



THE NEED OF AIR 31 

does not give cold means really that you may get your 
feet wet in pure air as much as you please without bad 
results. Once get a delusion firmly into the head, and 
even the plainest indication of nature will be mis- 
interpreted. 

It would be a pity to make any statements about 
the effects of cold which might lead to rashness on the 
part of the reader, and then to his discrediting the 
whole of this chapter. Therefore, before we go on 
to see htfw a man should protect his blood in the matter 
of air, let us note a few facts regarding cold. It is 
impossible to question that cold is a devitalising 
agency. Pasteur, as we may remember, stood a hen 
with its feet in cold water until its body temperature 
was lowered, and then found it susceptible to the bacilli 
of anthrax, to which the fowl is normally immune. But 
believe this to hold as a principle only in the case of 
such cold as actually lowers the temperature of the 
blood ; and to such most of us are never exposed in the 
whole course of our lives. For the rest, the effects of 
cold, whether applied by air or by water, depend en- 
tirely upon custom. Any one may at any time prove 
for himself that this is true as regards exposure of the 
head. Whenever a man takes off his hat on a bus or 
tram he is told that he will catch cold; and I never 
cease to marvel at the railway traveller who takes off 
his hard hat and puts on a travelling-cap. What he 
thinks this does for him I can scarcely imagine; but 
t is remotely possible, I suppose, that a man may so 
habituate his scalp to warm air — which is always 
poisoned by the exhalations of the scalp when he wears 
cap or hat — that he might catch cold if he exposed 
t. 1 An old teacher of mine used to inculcate, as the 
ule of health, the need to "keep your feet warm, your 

1 Also it may protect his scalp from dirt, and this is worth 
vhile, so long as men otherwise clean omit to wash the head 
the ordinary daily course. 



32 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

head cool, your bowels open, and your mind easy." 
This argument as regards the feet is universally ac- 
cepted, and is doubtless practically true. Five years 
ago, writing on this subject, I commented on the pecu- 
liar influence of the nerves of the extremities in this 
connection; but I had forgotten a passage in Locke's 
treatise on education, wherein that acute thinker attrib- 
utes the susceptibility of the feet to custom alone. 
He was undoubtedly right. In Edinburgh, with its 
"bitter east and misty summer," you may see small 
children going about barefooted in the unfailing rain 
and cold, and not a penny the worse. My remark 
about the peculiar influence of the nerves of the extrem- 
ities was nonsense, and some one should have told 
me so. 

But it follows that the reader who may be convinced 
of the importance of pure air, and the fallaciousness of 
the common doctrine regarding cold, must reckon with 
the susceptibilities which his practice hitherto has en- 
gendered ; and he must introduce his reforms cautiously. 
I believe that almost any one may acquire immunity 
to almost all draughts, but it is no part of the present 
counsel to suggest that this should be aimed at. The 
objection to a draught, as distinguished from still air, 
however cold, is that the movement of the air involves 
the carrying away of the heat and the moisture given 
off by the skin, and the continuous coming up of 
unheated and unmoistened air ready to take up its 
quantum of both. Thus the temperature of a part of 
the body may be much more markedly lowered by a 
draught of air at a given temperature than by expo- 
sure to still air that is many degrees cooler. We may 
regard it as part of our business, then, to avoid 
draughts; though, if the choice had to be made, it 
would be vastly safer to run the risk involved in 
acquiring immunity to draughts, rather than put up 
with foul air. 



THE NEED OF AIR 33 

Let us consider, then, the practical indications for 
the daytime in the first place. Obviously the sensible 
man will prefer the open air to any system Ventilation 
of ventilation when the choice is offered by day 
him. If he is a writer and has a garden he will write 
in his garden whenever he can. I dine in the garden 
all the summer and well into September, doubtless to 
the infinite amusement of my neighbours. The plan 
has only to be tried to be persisted in. But now as 
regards living-rooms — it being clearly understood that 
large size, though an advantage in that it makes venti- 
lation without draughts easier, is no substitute for 
ventilation. 

Windows should be open whenever it is possible, and 
in this respect the commoner form of window has an 
advantage over the French window, since it can be 
opened at the top. Amongst the most serious disad- 
vantages of the noise and dirt of cities is their tendency 
to favour the closed window. If at first the opening of 
the window at the top is found uncomfortable, a good 
plan is to raise the lower sash, and support it upon a 
block of wood which fills the opening. The fresh air 
then enters in an upward direction through the vertical 
aperture thus formed between the two sashes. The 
minute quantity of air entering between the sashes of 
a closed window is inadequate for ventilation, is insuf- 
ficient to hurt a fly on the score of draught, and its 
exclusion by sand-bags is utter imbecility. 

The fire-place and chimney are valuable means of 
ventilation, and on no account should the chimney be 
closed when the fire is not lit. This is important in 
the case of bedrooms, and bedrooms without fire-places 
are specially dangerous to sleep in. The bed-closet 
familiar in Scotland is an absolute abomination. When 
the fire is lit the value of the chimney is much enhanced. 
The air travels up a chimney, when the fire is lit, at 
the average rate of about three feet per second, it is 



34 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

said. The tendency to substitute other systems of 
warming is decidedly inimical to ventilation. Those 
rare people who really love fresh air are familiar with 
the stuffy, headachy atmosphere of Continental hotels 
which boast chauffage centrale, and such people do 
their best to avoid them. The abolition of the chimney 
and the fire means the abolition of the last remaining 
hope of ventilation in apartments not most carefully 
constructed with a view to this too commonly unre- 
quired requirement. 

And now as to the night-air superstition. The 
origin of the belief that night air is noxious — nox, 
The night- n oxa, noceo, noise and nuisance all have 
air super- the same root — is an interesting matter 
stition f or inquiry. It may doubtless be traced 

largely to the primitive fear of darkness rather than 
to the fear of cold. But mainly it has, I surmise, a 
much more definite and reasonable origin. Malaria, 
the disease which causes more sickness, though tubercu- 
losis causes more deaths, than any other, was supposed, 
until a few years ago, to be due to bad air, as the 
name denotes. It was an observed fact that exposure 
to the night air caused this disease. The marshes 
with which it was connected — hence the name paludism 
■ — were supposed to give off their noxious miasms at 
night. Unquestionably he who did not expose himself 
to the night air escaped, as a rule, whilst he who did 
expose himself was struck down. But now we know 
that the disease is conveyed by the bite of a particular 
kind of mosquito, and this mosquito chooses the night 
as its meal-time. The air was blamed, but the mosquito 
was the real offender, and the air had nothing what- 
ever to do with it, directly or indirectly. 

Superstitions, however, die hard, and this one, no 
doubt, has a long life before it yet. We still fear the 
night air, and a deadly fear this is. We may note, in 



THE NEED OF AIR 35 

passing, that all air at night is night air, and may 
proceed to inquire into its properties. 

It is cooler than during the daytime, a fact which 
may be met by the use of bed-clothes. The reader 
who is persuaded by this chapter to ventilate his bed- 
room in future may thus have to use an extra blanket ; 
but since one spends about a third of one's whole life 
in bed, the advantage of breathing pure instead of foul 
air during such a large proportion of one's time may 
not be thought dear at this price. 

So far as composition is concerned, the few differ- 
ences between night air and day air are all to the 
advantage of the former. It contains fewer noxious 
gases, since the process of putrefaction is more active 
during the warmth of the daytime. It contains less 
carbonic acid, in especial, so far as cities are concerned, 
since fewer fires and furnaces are burning. It contains 
less solid matter, since less dust is raised by traffic. 
And its admission is under one's own control; whereas 
during the daytime one may be at the mercy of other 
people, who "like fresh air," but are not to be mastered 
by their affections. 

It may sometimes have struck the reader as remark- 
able, on the accepted theory, that cricketers should 
die of consumption. It must be remembered, however, 
that the professional cricketer may spend too much of 
his time in the public-house, a great resort for con- 
sumptives and tubercle bacilli; and that, if he also 
spends a third of his life in foul air, all the conditions 
for the development of consumption are supplied. 
Similarly it has been pointed out that Grace Darling 
died of consumption, "all because she slept in a cham- 
ber little bigger than herself. The glorious fresh air 
of the Fame Islands availed her nothing, although she 
breathed it all day. She slept in a badly-ventilated 



36 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

It is thus not true to say that exposure to night air 
is not deadly. It kills hundreds of thousands — but it 
is the night air made in their own bedrooms. From 
hour to hour there accumulates in such rooms the car- 
bonic acid given off by the sleeper's lungs, and the 
organic gases given off by his lungs and skin. These 
he reabsorbs and they poison him. 

The advantages of the open window at night are 
general and particular; they are the same as those of 
The open breathing pure air at any other time. But 
bedroom- it is of special interest to note the effect of 
window -the change upon the breakfast appetite in 

cases where this has been lacking, as is so often observed 
in the consumptive. The failure of appetite after the 
longest fast of the daily cycle is due to the gaseous 
poisoning of the nervous centres ; and few consequences 
of the fresh-air treatment of consumption are more 
striking than the rapid return of the breakfast 
appetite. 

The disadvantages are easily disposed of. Noise 
one can become accustomed to. During the process one 
may use cotton-wool plugs for the ears. Wedges will 
prevent windows from rattling, however high the wind. 
Draught may be avoided by placing the head of the 
bed out of its course, i.e. not between the window and 
the fireplace. At first the actual purity of the air may 
interfere with sleep, since one has been accustomed to 
sleep partly under the influence of carbonic acid, which 
is a hypnotic — mercifully so, since it soothes our last 
hours. One soon learns, however, to sleep notwith- 
standing many years' practice of this commonest of all 
drug habits. 

It is best not to have the side of the bed against a 
wall, since this interferes with gaseous diffusion and 
increases the percentage of carbonic acid rebreathed 
by the sleeper. 

There are certain possible means of practically creat- 



THE NEED OF AIR 37 

ing fresh air in a living-room. One of these, at present 
quite inaccessible, is the exposure of liquid plants 
air. This is given off in large quantities and ozone 
during Sir James Dewar's- lectures at the Royal Insti- 
tution, and may go some little way to account for the 
vigour and exhilaration and closeness of attention 
which distinguish these occasions. Or oxygen under 
pressure may be liberated, as is often done in the sick- 
room with great benefit. But, for ordinary life, flow- 
ers and plants are the only available means of supply- 
ing a room with oxygen from within. This they do, 
during the daylight only, by decomposing — or dissoci- 
ating, to use the modern term — the carbonic acid in 
the air, which is their food and our poison, retaining 
the carbon and liberating free oxygen. Thus, during 
the daylight, living flowers and plants are very desira- 
ble inhabitants of a living-room — just as, from their 
point of view, we are desirable companions, since we 
produce such large quantities of the gas on which they 
live. At night, however, the ordinary breathing func- 
tions which plants share with us resume the upper 
hand in their chemistry, the dissociation of carbonic 
acid depending absolutely upon the assistance of sun- 
light; and thus at night, plants and flowers are just 
so many more consumers of oxygen and producers of 
carbonic acid. The simple rule, then, is that they are 
welcome during the day on all counts, in the sickroom 
and elsewhere, but should always be turned out at 
night. 

A word may be said here regarding ozone. This 
gas is a peculiar form of oxygen, very readily de- 
stroyed by organic matter, gaseous or other, and its 
presence in any sample of air is therefore an index of 
its purity. But the gas is irrespirable, and therefore 
of no direct service. 

An important aspect of the question of ventilation 
is concerned with the access of pure air to the skin 



38 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

and the scalp. This most personal and intimate form 
df ventilation, which is too commonly ignored in dis- 
cussions of the subject, will be dealt with when we 
consider the questions of clothing and the care of the 
skin and hair. 

Much more important, however, is the question of 
the employment of the air provided, and this applies 
How to no l ess to bad air than to good. Infants 

breathe have great difficulty in breathing through 

their mouths, but we have none. Nevertheless, the 
mouth is the aperture of the alimentary canal, and the 
nose of the respiratory tract. The writers of Genesis 
were sound in their science when they said, "The Lord 
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." We shall 
best appreciate the objections to mouth-breathing if 
we consider the advantages of the natural passage. 

There is a device occasionally employed by delicate 
people and called a respirator. Its object is to filter 
the air and, by exposing it to the condensed moisture 
of the breath, to warm and moisten it. The device is 
a very good one, but it was anticipated and realised 
in an almost perfect form many millions of years ago. 
This natural and admirable respirator — with auto- 
matic adjustment — is the nose. The extreme tortuos- 
ity of the nasal passages renders them extraordinarily 
efficient as filters. Examination of the air taken from 
the back of the nose after its passage through this 
filter shows it to be entirely free from germs, and 
almost entirely free from the much lighter and smaller 
particles of dust. One of the first principles for the 
avoidance of respiratory infection is, therefore, to 
breathe through the nose. All fear and worry about 
infection are to be deprecated, as tending to produce 
that which they seek to avert, but the plan of breath- 
ing in the naturally-ordained fashion is not open to 
this objection and, having the approval of untold 



THE NEED OF AIR 39 

ages, is in no need of my commendation. It is quite 
inadequate, however, for the filtration of fog or 
"smog." 

The natural respirator has the further advantage of 
moistening and warming the air which it filters, so 
that the delicate respiratory passages and the lungs 
themselves shall be perfectly supplied. This is accom- 
plished by the relatively lengthy journey across a 
mucous membrane which is richly supplied with blood- 
vessels — we may recall its tendency to bleed — and 
which is very loose in structure, so that when need 
arises it may become almost congested with blood. 
Cold air is the natural stimulus to this accumulation 
of blood in the nose, and thus the air is warmed. This 
is the explanation of the fact that the nose often tends 
to run slightly when we walk in cold air, the increased 
secretion depending upon the increased supply of blood 
which is necessary in order to warm the air. 

Thus, unless you have something to say or swallow, 
your mouth should be shut. Often, no Mouth- 
doubt, it would be better shut on these oc- breathing 
casions also, but certainly it should never be open at 
any other time. 

The tendency towards the very dangerous habit of 
breathing through the mouth may depend upon causes 
in the mouth or in the nose. A child permitted to suck 
rags or comforters too frequently and long, often has 
the shape of its jaws and palate modified, so that the 
lips close only with an effort. People whose mouths 
have been thus distorted must learn to make this effort 
— which, after a time, will be no longer required. The 
same remark applies to people who have lost their back 
teeth and thrown the whole work of mastication upon 
the front teeth, which have consequently become inclined 
outwards and so interfere with the normal apposition 
of the lips. 

Most commonly, however, mouth-breathing is a 



40 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

necessary resort because the nose is obstructed. The 
causes are many : polypus, adenoids, and so forth. No 
one should permit himself to have either nostril so 
obstructed, still less to permit such obstruction in the 
case of any child for whom he is responsible. Lesser 
degrees of obstruction are due to chronic nasal catarrh, 
and the wonder is that the noses of city dwellers 
remain as clear as they do, considering the amount of 
dust and smoke-particles which are constantly being 
trapped in them. 

This respirator has the further advantage of a 
sensitive surface — the olfactory or smelling membrane — 
which warns us as to offensive gases or particles in the 
air. The warning is to be utilised by departure from 
the source of offence, or its suppression ; not by holding 
the nose and breathing through the mouth. If such 
things must be breathed, at least let them be filtered as 
far as possible. 

I have devoted by no means excessive space to this 
initial subject, the vital importance of winch cannot 
be over-estimated. It is relevant during 
Conclusion twenty-four hours of every day we live, 
affecting the very composition of the blood during 
every moment of our lives. It has the great advan- 
tage and the great disadvantage of not arousing the 
interest of the hypochondriac and the man who fusses 
about his health. This is an advantage because the 
subject can at least be discussed and its importance 
insisted upon without the writer having any fear that 
he is encouraging hypochondria and valetudinarian- 
ism: but it is a disadvantage because the preacher is 
not listened to as he is whenever he directs people's 
attention to some part of their own person. It gives 
self-observation nothing to feed upon. Thus, at any 
time, you may attend meetings in which the most 
trivial matters of diet are being discussed as if the 
destiny of mankind depended upon them — in an atmos- 



THE NEED OF AIR 41 

phere which involves the blood-poisoning of all present 
and would neutralise the value of any diet that common 
sense, healthy appetite, or the food-faddist can con- 
ceive. 

Reading over this chapter, with its priceless advice, 
none the less true or treasurable because it is trite, 
I am reminded of the admirable story of Naaman, 
which teaches us once again how little human nature 
has changed in so many ages. The Syrian captain 
expected to have splendid phrases spoken over him, and 
the site of his disease dramatically struck by the 
prophetic hand, or to have some great task appointed : 
"And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and 
said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some 
great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? how much 
rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be 
clean?" 

The remedy was too simple: it made no appeal to 
the love of magic and the strange. He wanted some- 
thing that he could never have thought of himself: 
and he was told to wash and be clean. The case will 
be the same with most of my readers. They have or 
fear consumption, perhaps, or some other malady: 
they suffer or fear to suffer from symptoms like "that 
tired feeling" or lack of energy or appetite. They do 
not want to be told about fresh air — they know all 
about that. It makes no appeal to their love of the 
miraculous, and it is far from new. They thought 
that a young writer like myself would be "up-to-date" 
and have something fresh to say, instead of these stale 
things about fresh air. 

Let such a reader be persuaded that he is utterly 
wrong. He has a "weak chest," perhaps, and thought 
to hear about the newest tuberculin, not about the need 
of air. Rut the action of air (and of light, to which 
the next chapter is devoted) is not one whit less mag- 
ical or miraculous than any of the achievements of 



42 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

bacteriology. Pasteur, the founder of bacteriology, 
said that "tout est miracle" — a highly significant say- 
ing for such a wonder-worker as he was. You are like 
Naaman: you would take a lot of trouble to obtain 
some wonderful preventive or cure, and would pay a 
good price for pure air if it were corked up in a bottle 
labelled "elixir of life," which it certainly is : but to be 
told "Go and wash in Jordan" — this is too common- 
place altogether. Thus I do not expect to be thanked 
for this chapter, nor for others like it, any more than 
the people thanked Dr. Ox and his servant Ygene in 
Jules Verne's excellent parable, when they found out 
that air, merely air, was their secret. But I should 
have earned the reader's thanks none the less. 



IV 43 

THE NEED OF LIGHT 

We are all the children of light. This is true of every 
living thing, for all life is the child of light. The 
obvious utility of light and of vision is not Life and 
concerned in this statement, nor does it light 
follow that ceaseless stimulation of the eyes is neces- 
sary or desirable. Nor, again, does it follow that the 
sun may not destroy his own children. The question 
of protection from the sun in his strength will be 
considered in the discussion of clothing. The point 
to be made in this brief chapter is that we cannot do 
without the sun, and that none of our artificial sub- 
stitutes can replace daylight for general purposes, 
though they may do so for purposes of vision. As has 
been said, the electric arc may cause sunburn, but it 
cannot replace the sun. 

Though light or, in more general terms, radiant 
energy, is necessary for all life, yet direct sunlight is 
highly inimical to the low forms of life which are 
inimical to our own. Many bacteriological experi- 
ments show that tubercle bacilli, for instance, are 
rapidly killed by exposure to direct sunlight, and, as 
everyone knows, the observation has been applied in 
the Finsen light treatment of skin-tuberculosis, which 
we call lupus. The admission of abundant light, then, 
to all places inhabited by mankind, indoors and out of 
doors, is highly desirable, whether or not its direct 
incidence upon their human occupants be beneficial, 
as sometimes it is not. The greenhouse principle is 
not suited for human uses, and I do not suggest that 
light should be admitted without limit, through glass, 
to closed rooms. Air must freely be admitted also. It 
is worth noting that the most markedly antiseptic rays 
of radiant energy are the ultra -violet rays, which are 
invisible to the human eye, though they are registered 
by the photographic plate and are visible to the eyes 



44 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of ants. Now glass is opaque to these rays, which have 
little heating-power, and should therefore be on every 
account welcome within our living-rooms. It is better, 
then, to admit light through open windows rather than 
through glass. 

Quite apart from its enmity to our enemies, light 
should be welcomed by us as the first, best, and safest 
Light the °f stimulants and tonics, when stimulation 
best tonic is desirable. In other words, it should be 
excluded from the sleeping-room, but freely admitted 
when we are awake. Artificial illumination has not this 
stimulant power, whilst the practical impossibility of 
making it diffused involves a strain upon the eyes which 
diffuse daylight does not cause. 

The precise experiments of Platen enable us to 
express in definite chemical terms the stimulating effect 
of light. He found, in the case of dogs, that they 
absorbed sixteen per cent, less oxygen when their eyes 
were bandaged than when the light was allowed access 
to them. The utilisation of this oxygen of course 
involves the consumption of more food, which is burnt 
up by it, as well as more work for the excretory 
organs. Thus there may well be occasions when the 
exclusion of light is desirable; but these experiments 
clearly show its value for the healthy man who desires 
to live fully. 

Not only does the absorption of light — by the skin 
as well as the eyes — make for the increase of vital 
energy, which is indeed none other than transformed 
solar energy, but it also strengthens the bodily de- 
fences against injury and disease. It serves the manu- 
facture of those preventive and remedial substances 
which the body must constantly produce if it is to 
thrive. The thing is as magical as everything else, 
if only we had the intellectual light to see it. The 
experiments of Clayton and Flammarion, showing the 
value of light for vegetable growth, are none the less 



THE NEED OF LIGHT 45 

marvellous because the results are what might have 
been expected; unless we are to declare that our ex- 
pectation or lack of expectation is the criterion of the 
marvellous. 

This chapter and the last introduce the subject of 
the furniture of the living-room, and to this I may 
devote a word or two. It is a lamentable Light in the 
spectacle, in the houses not of the poor living-room 
alone, to observe the accumulation of useless furniture 
in rooms already dangerously small. Every piece of 
furniture directly reduces the size of a room and its 
air-containing capacity. It is also a depository for 
dust ; and, unless it has a use, its proper place is the 
dust-bin. Similarly hangings and curtains, besides 
interfering with ventilation, interfere with illumination. 
Apart from the fact that they are too frequently eye- 
sores, they are objectionable on purely practical 
grounds. The relatively bare and empty room of which 
modern hygiene approves looks unfurnished to the eye 
at first, but fortunately eyes are educable, and before 
long we come to wonder at our neighbours' habit of 
choking themselves up with lumber and covering every 
possible source of life-giving air and light with hang- 
ings. By all means have the thickest — so-called 
"photographic" — blinds for bedrooms, since light 
interferes with sleep, and let them be wide and long; 
but curtains in bedrooms especially are an abomina- 
tion, whether over doors or windows. The tendency to 
over-furnish is a craze, and involves making many 
women nothing but slaves to their useless and worse 
than useless possessions. There are other ways of 
demonstrating or simulating affluence, and this one 
should be put an end to. There are many cases where 
chronic bronchitis and asthma and nasal catarrh can 
be abolished by the abolition of curtains and hangings 
and even carpets, the chief functions of which are to 
accumulate noxious dust, occupy space which might be 



46 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

occupied by air, exclude both air and light, and inter- 
fere with the circulation of the one and absorb much 
of the other. Our forefathers were worse than we, and 
would look with as great astonishment on our present 
practices as many will now be inclined to feel when 
they see how a house should really be furnished. Their 
fourpost beds, with all their apparatus of hangings 
and curtains, not to mention feather bedding, are 
utterly condemned by the common sense of this genera- 
tion, but we have not gone far enough yet. We have 
much to learn from the Japanese, whose notions of 
house-furnishing may serve as a model to us, alike on 
the score of art and on the score of hygiene. 

The question of light directly bears upon the treat- 
ment of walls. The darker the walls of a room, and 
the more covered they are with dark furniture and 
hangings, the more intense does artificial illumination 
require to be, since so much light is absorbed and so 
little reflected from the sides of the room. The use 
of light-coloured walls is therefore to be recommended 
on the score of economy alone. It is also to be com- 
mended as adding to the light of the room in daylight 
— a most important point in smoke-darkened cities. 
Again, in permitting reduction of the local intensity of 
the artificial lighting of the room it reduces that strain 
upon the eyes to which so many troubles, not only of 
the eyes, may be traced. The ideal is unrealisable, 
but the lighter the walls of the room the more nearly 
it can be approached. 

A light wall-paper soon becomes dirty; therefore 
the proper covering is not paper but a smooth and 
The treat- washable paint or distemper. I do not 
mentof know why any one uses wall-paper nowa- 

days, but if for some unknown reason it 
is employed, let it at least be patternless. The strain 
imposed by modern civilisation upon the eye. an organ 
evolved and adapted for use at long range, is now only 



THE NEED OF LIGHT 47 

beginning to be appreciated, and its effects are far- 
reaching, involving much more than the eye itself. It 
is enough to be reading and writing many hours in 
the day without having patterns to decipher on our 
walls, and not a single space in the whole room upon 
which the eye can rest and rest. From the point of 
view of art and the education of the aesthetic taste of 
children, these awful wall-papers, with their repeated 
roses and baskets of hideous flowers, are without any 
excuse. In a bedroom, where someone may some day 
lie ill, they are a nightmare. Whatever the eye may 
tolerate in health, at least the eye of the invalid should 
always have peace from these torments, and should 
have, for choice, I am inclined to think, a pale green 
surface to rest upon. Cream or "pink ivory" and 
green I recommend as the colours of walls; and green 
especially for bedrooms, where brilliance of light is 
of less importance. I take it that the prevailing colour 
of the vegetable world has determined, in accordance 
with the general principles of the action of environ- 
ment, the particular adaptation between green and 
the animal eye. It is probably the result of sound ob- 
servation that card-tables and billiard tables are cov- 
ered with green cloth; and the reader who will paint 
the walls of his bedroom a pale green and furnish it 
in accordance with the principles I have laid down will 
be surprised to find how exquisite and restful a result 
can be obtained, and at how small a cost. If, then, 
after a few weeks, he has occasion to sleep in a strange 
bedroom, he will not fail to appreciate his own. 

I am sorry if the reader expected a dissertation on 
light-baths and all the devices which belong to this 
category. Such might have been made interesting, 
no doubt, but not useful. The Finsen light treatment 
for lupus can scarcely be too highly praised, and 
there are few medical subjects more susceptible of 
attractive discussion ; but if I so spent the space which 



48 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

I might devote to a discussion of the much less inter- 
esting and striking means by which to avoid lupus 
altogether, I should be abusing an opportunity. Now 
fresh air and sunlight are the deadliest enemies of the 
tubercle bacillus, and of every other noxious microbe 
already or yet to be discovered. They are directly 
poisonous to microbes and directly life-giving to man. 
Surely, then, it is more decent that we should discuss 
the conditions of air and light, in which if we live, we 
may laugh at almost all microbes, rather than that we 
should discuss the nature of lupus and its modern 
treatment. The terrible fact about the greater part 
of disease, certainly the overwhelming proportion of 
disease in temperate regions, is that it should never 
have happened. 

"If of all words of tongue or pen, 
The saddest are, 'It might have been.' 
More sad are these we daily see, 
'It is, but it hadn't ought to be.' " x 

In a world that has enough and to spare of necessary 

evils, the unnecessary, which are a thousand times more 
numerous, are absolutely intolerable, and my purpose 
here is to show how some of these may be avoided. 
Discussion in a book will not cure lupus ; the doctor 
and his apparatus are necessary; but just as surelv 
as the diagnosis and treatment of disease without 
actual examination and observation of the patient is 
an impossible quackery, so surelv the prevention of 
disease can be achieved by books. This kind of medical 
practice does not win the gratitude of the other, but 
it is vastly more efficacious and useful. The reader 
who wants a discussion of diseases and their treatment 
must refer to dictionaries of medicine, and precious 
little good they will do him. But the reader who will 
attend to the elementary laws of life, regarding such 

1 Bret Harte. 



THE NEED OF LIGHT 49 

things as air and light, which are necessary to all life 
whatsoever, can afford not to care, so far as his own 
person is concerned, whether consumption and lupus 
can be cured or not. They will not come near him. 

An appeal may be made, however, to the individual 
reader, regarding the smoke of cities, with its products 
of fog or "smog." No advice of mine will Light and 
enable the individual to avert these evils fog 
from himself. But since nothing will avail but the 
formation of public opinion, it may be hoped that 
something may here be done towards this end. We 
take the coal made by the sunlight of past ages and 
use it to obscure the sunlight of the present. The 
practice is most costly, it is dirty, it interferes with 
ventilation — since it tempts the housewife, solicitous 
of her clean white curtains, to keep windows closed — ■ 
it devitalises our noses and air-passages, and perma- 
nently stains the lungs of every city dweller. Smoke 
is not antiseptic, but the obscurer of the first, cheapest, 
and best antiseptic, which is sunlight. There is not 
an extenuating circumstance in its favour, and the 
indictment against it is without limit. When are we 
going to take serious and concerted action against this 
perennial destruction of daylight? 



50 V 

THE NEED OF CLOTHES 

This chapter is advisedly entitled "The Need of 
Clothes," since it is clothes as a need that we are 
solely concerned with. Nevertheless, a certain his- 
torical fact is by no means only historical, and will 
very certainly insure that the principles and arguments 
that are to follow here do not meet universal accept- 
ance. This historical fact is that, as Carlyle hints 
at the beginning of "Sartor Resartus," and Spencer 
at the beginning of his "Education," the origin of 
clothes was not need as we understand it, certainly not 
the need for warmth or protection, but the need for self- 
assertion and decoration. With clothes as decorative 
we must here assume that we have no concern ; but that 
this is an assumption only, the history of fashion abun- 
dantly proves. When, therefore, it is possible to add 
the aesthetic to the hygienic argument, this must be done. 

After the invention of clothes for purposes of decora- 
tion came the discovery of their value as means of pro- 
tection — the question we are about to discuss — and 
lastly came the wholly artificial and conventional sense 
of their need for decency. With this we have no 
appreciable concern at all, since, fortunately, there is 
hardly any hygienic requirement or suggestion which 
conflicts with any modern criterion of the decent. 

First, then, what is the hygienic or protective func- 
tion of clothes? 

The following are the items : the retention of warmth, 
the avoidance of dirt, protection from direct sunlight, 
and the protection of ill-protected structures, such as 
the feet, from mechanical injury. 

Considering first the retention of warmth, the reader 
Clothes and nee d scarcely be reminded that, except for 
warmth fires and hot bottles and the incidence of 

sunlight, all his heat is produced by himself. No 
clothes produce any heat whatever. The standard 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 51 

clothing material, which wool represents, is used in 
the form of flannel to prevent ice from melting when 
it is exposed to temperatures higher than its own. We 
thus are strictly correct when we speak of putting on 
clothes to "keep us warm." They create no heat, but 
merely retain it. 

This elementary fact involves what is constantly for- 
gotten — a necessary relation between food and clothing. 
Since clothing serves to retain the heat which is 
created by the burning of the food or fuel which 
we take in, it follows that, other things being equal, 
the more fuel taken, the more rapidly can heat be 
lost from the body without lowering its temperature, 
and therefore the less clothing — that is, obstruction to 
the outflow of the heat produced — is necessary. On 
the other hand, if abundant means are provided for 
retarding the outflow of heat — that is, if we clothe 
ourselves heavily — then so much less heat will require 
to be made, so much less food will require to be con- 
sumed. Thus I offer it as a speculation which obser- 
vation may prove true, that a very considerable 
amount of the violent differences which now agitate 
physiologists, "dieteticians," food reformers, food 
faddists, et hoc genus omne, scientific and unscientific, 
depends upon this question of clothing. I fancy it 
may be found that, in general, the people who live on 
an exceedingly spare diet clothe themselves very 
warmly, and so make a little food go a long way. We 
are really only at the beginning of this question, and 
I cannot attempt to discuss it here fully, but it is well 
to note its bearing on questions of economy. It is 
vastly cheaper to clothe warmly than to have to con- 
sume every day an extra amount of food because one 
clothes lightly. What, however, should be the balance 
between these two things, whether it varies for differ- 
ent people, whether the best results can be got out of 
the bodily machine with much fuel and rapid loss of 



52 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

heat or with little fuel and slow loss of heat — these are 
questions which I cannot answer, for the excellent 
reason that they have not yet even been asked. I am 
inclined to think, however, that just as warm clothing 
and less food means monetary economy, so also it 
means vital economy, and much labour-saving for the 
digestive and excretory organs. 

We are to consider clothes primarily as means for 
preventing the outflow of heat, and the first of the 
facts usually forgotten is that the warmth, as we call 
it, of a given material or garment is not ascertained 
when the material is named. There is much absurd 
superstition about wool, and indeed about the mere 
source of clothing material in general. It is quite 
certain that the texture is no less important, and it 
is even more certain that tightness and looseness are 
more important still. So important is it that clothing 
should be loose that we must devote special study to 
this single point. 

The body was not made for clothes, but clothes for 
the body. There is something unnatural, one may say, 
Clothing about the application of any kind of gar- 
must be ment to the body, the movements of which, 
loose as a w hole, and the movements of its parts 
amongst themselves are, so to say, assumed by nature 
to be absolutely unrestricted by any outside agent 
other than the pressure of the atmosphere. The mo- 
ment any garment is applied, the risk of unnatural 
pressure is involved. The hard hat squeezes the arter- 
ies of the scalp, starves it of blood, and causes baldness ; 
the pressure of the boot causes corns and deforms 
the joint of the great toe in every civilised person; 
the pressure of the garter interferes with the return 
of blood upwards through the surface veins of the leg, 
and helps to make them varicose; the pressure of 
anything upon the chest interferes with the expansion 
of the lungs, helps the blood to stagnate in them, and 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 53 

predisposes to consumption; the pressure of anything 
around the waist, such as the corset, interferes with 
the movements of the wall of the abdomen and of the 
bowel, and thus causes constipation and many other 
evils ; continuous pressure upon any part of the skin 
will kill it and produce an ulcer; intermittent pressure 
causes such forms of overgrowth as corns. There is 
no exception whatever to the rule that from top to 
toe all pressure is undesirable. Since it cannot be 
absolutely avoided, in consequence of the weight of 
clothes, it must be minimised, it must be evenly dis- 
tributed, it must be allotted to those parts, such as 
the shoulders, which are best able to bear it. It is 
traditionally upon the shoulders that a man bears his 
burdens, and even the burden of clothing should, as 
far as possible, be borne there too. 

Not only should clothing be loose on these general 
grounds as regards surface pressure and interference 
with movement, but it should also be loose, because, 
if sufficient outside pressure is applied to a limb, say 
a foot or a hand, the blood simply cannot enter it 
from within. The incautious attendant, too tightly 
bandaging a limb for some time, will cause its death 
from starvation. On the other hand, if blood be 
imperatively needed at the centre, the limbs may be 
intentionally starved by tight bandages for a time in 
order that the vital parts, brain and heart, may be 
kept going. If a glove or a boot be very tight, the 
foot or hand is starved, and since these parts make 
practically no heat for themselves, but depend for the 
maintenance of their temperature upon the blood, 
warmed by the central fires, the limb in such cases 
must become cold. A very large number of people 
who suffer from cold feet are guilty of the stupidity 
of systematically excluding from them, by means of 
tight footwear, the only thing that can keep them 
warm from within. The stretching out of a tightly- 



54 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

cased foot to the fire may have, on occasions, attrac- 
tions which scarcely come within the purview of the 
hygienist ; but it is pure folly so far as he is obviously 
concerned. On the whole, considering man's adoption 
of the erect attitude, prejudicing the circulation in 
the feet, and considering his footwear and the con- 
ditions under which he expects his feet to live and 
move, perhaps the endurance of this part of the 
human body is noteworthy amongst many noteworthy 
facts. 

There is yet another reason why clothing should 
be loose — on account of the retention of warmth, quite 
apart from any question of interference with the 
circulation, and therefore with its distribution. A 
given amount of a given material and texture is 
warmer as a loose garment than as a tight one, simply 
because it imprisons, as a loose garment, a certain 
amount of air, and air is relatively a very bad con- 
ductor of heat, and therefore "warm," just as clothes 
are "warm." This is one reason why there is some- 
thing to be said for clothing ourselves in more layers 
than one. We thus imprison more layers than one of 
air — broken layers, no doubt, but none the less valu- 
able, so long as the air is imprisoned in some degree. 
Indeed, other things being equal, the warmest clothing 
will be air-tight clothing, but it is hardly necessary to 
say that the imprisonment of the air by clothing for 
purposes of warmth must only be partial and imper- 
fect. Let us observe the golden mean, and whilst, on 
the one hand, we clothe ourselves with air, let us insure, 
on the other hand, that the air is ventilated. 

Having agreed that whatever else our clothing is 
or is not, it must be loose, we may proceed to the 
The flannel question of its material. Here, of course, 
fallacy there is no question as to the value of wool 

or flannel for us, just as for the creatures from whom 
we steal it. Yet though it might be supposed that no 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 55 

one who had ever seen a sheep could question the 
importance of texture in this matter, we are all 
inclined to fancy that material is everything. As 
long as a garment is made of wool, it may be tight, 
it may be made into a dense, inflexible, non-absorbent 
texture, so that it will float almost indefinitely when 
a piece of it is placed in a bath of water, and yet we 
think that all is well because it is wool, though nothing 
short of microscopic study of its fibres will suffice to 
discover any relation between this substance and the 
exquisitely light, warm, absorbent, ventilated coat of 
the sheep. 

Now it is doubtless true that the sheep has the 
advantage in that its clothing grows out of its skin, 
and besides needing neither safety-pins nor buttons, 
requires no continuity of structure in order to be held 
together. The sheep's advantage will be realised if 
we consider the case of a man wearing a sheepskin 
coat. He is wearing not only the sheep's clothing, 
but also the sheep's skin, which he puts on outside 
his own. The sheep "scores." Nevertheless, there is 
no reason why we should weave wool into dense flannel 
textures of the kind which the scullerymaid employs, 
or used to employ, for cleaning a sink. 

For there arises another difficulty from the fact 
that we employ clothing at all. It is that, whilst 
interfering with the output of heat from clothing 
the skin, as we desire, we also interfere must be 
with the disposal of the effete matters dis- absorbent 
charged by the skin, as is by no means to be desired. 
Clothing must therefore be absorbent, or, at the very 
least, the layer next the skin must be absorbent, and 
the more necessary is this the more complete and close 
the clothing; the less necessary the nearer it ap« 
proaches to the natural state, as in the garb of an 
athlete. The skin can perfectly well do without any 
absorbent arrangement at all, as the face suffices to 



56 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

prove, but in so far as we clothe it we must compensate 
for the disadvantages involved in all clothing. Now 
the whole virtue of wool or flannel next the skin, as 
against any other material or as against their use in 
an outer layer, is that they are supposed to be absorb- 
ent. Directly we employ a texture which, however 
unquestionable its claim to the title of "all wool," is 
non-absorbent, the virtue has gone out of it except on 
the score, insufficient in itself, of warmth. Thus the 
non-absorbent "chest-protector" is really a chest-weak- 
ener by its interference with the functions of the skin 
of the chest. Thus again, there is no reason in the 
world why people in whom wool is apt to cause a rash, 
or people who like to be lightly clad, should take any 
notice whatever of the old doctrine, provided that the 
non-woollen material which they wear next their skin is 
woven into an absorbent form. If the reader is inclined 
to question whether the texture can really determine 
absorbent power to the extent suggested, the point may 
be illustrated by the case of the surgeon and his cotton 
wool. Different makes of cotton wool, though all con- 
sisting of pure cotton, vary enormously in absorbent 
power. A cheap cotton wool wrapped in gauze and 
used as a swab by the surgeon will seriously handicap 
him as compared with a better make, which sucks up 
everything as quickly as a sponge. 

It is now possible to obtain absorbent underclothing 
made of silk, linen, cotton, and other materials, and 
produced by many competing firms, which, so far as 
absorbent power is concerned, has all the virtues of any 
woollen garment, and none of the disadvantages which 
attach to wool in the case of many people, and for manv 
climates. 

Wool, of course, when made of a proper texture, 
retains its value on the score of warmth. But we 
must remind ourselves that man, this amazing and 
unique animal, lives in all the external temperatures 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 57 

which his planet affords, hot as well as cold, and the 
warmth which is a virtue in wool in the temperate 
zone is a final objection to it in parts of the world 
where the average external temperature is higher than 
that of the human body, and where the problem is to 
keep cool. 

None too much space has been allotted to this ques- 
tion of absorption and to the refutation of the flannel 
fallacy. We have to remember that the average man 
disposes of about fifty ounces of water by his skin 
every da}', together with various gases and a good deal 
of oil. This being so, the introduction of thoroughly 
absorbent materials which are not made of wool really 
involves a very substantial improvement in the clothing 
of civilised man. It enables him to clothe himself in 
something not too ludicrously unlike the admirably 
ventilated clothing of the lower animals — wool, fur, 
and feathers. Also, it enables him to throw the duty 
of preserving warmth upon his outer clothing, and to 
devote his underclothing to the business of protecting 
the skin from dirt. Light, loose, cool, absorbent under- 
clothing best serves this purpose, not least because it 
can be so readily and frequently washed. Those who 
compare our present-day clothing with that of our 
ancestors to our disadvantage can be very little aware 
of the dirt which they regarded as normal, and of the 
services to cleanliness and the predilections of the nose 
involved in the introduction of linen, and still more, of 
cotton the cheap, for the purposes of underclothing. 

And here may be conveniently noted a protest of 
the strongest kind against the occasional attempts 
made nowadays to decry the production clothes 
of cheap and undurable clothing. By all should not 
means let us have clothes which can sur- be durable 
vive a visit to the laundry — a question more of the 
methods of the laundry than of the material of the 
clothes. But let us not suppose that the wonderful 



58 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

garments of old, which were handed down from gen- 
eration to generation (having early become impreg- 
nated with as much dirt as they were capable of hold- 
ing), are to be regretted to-day. It is safe to lay 
down the proposition that, other things being equal, 
clothing cannot last too short a time. It is what 
cometh out of a man that defileth, and no material 
thing that we expose to our presence, much less our 
touch, is any better for it. It is not yet to be hoped, 
I suppose, that a decent standard of cleanliness will 
be adopted as regards bedclothing — blankets and mat- 
tresses in especial — even though that little city of 
little lives, the feather bed, has mercifully gone out of 
fashion; but as regards our personal clothing, let us 
be assured beyond all possible question the ideal is that 
of the Japanese handkerchief, here to-day then gone 
for ever. Recent investigation as to many forms of 
disease is tending to show that more attention than 
ever hitherto must be paid to the clothing we cover 
ourselves with by night and day, and to the rich and 
varied forms of humble life with which, I need hardly 
say, it superabounds. The discoveries regarding the 
conveyance of microbes, such as that of malaria by 
the mosquito, are now being rapidly extended, and are 
beginning to teach us how many friends, hosts, and 
vehicles of microbes are to be found, if they are care- 
fully enough looked for, in our closest neighbourhood; 
and in the light of these facts nothing more ridiculous 
than the cry for a return to the splendid and durable 
old garments of the good old days can be imagined. 
We forget what the death-rate was in the good old 
days. Cheap and nasty does not apply to clothes at 
all, and ideally they should be literally ephemeral, last- 
ing for one day only. 

In order to point this moral, one may refer to the 
Japanese handkerchief. Here is an article which per- 
forms its function perfectly. It is beautiful, cheap. 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 59 

light, and of small bulk. When done with, it goes into 
the fire, and can hurt no one. Our handkerchiefs, 
however, when dirty are sent to the laundry to be 
cleaned. This means, of course, exposing other peo- 
ple to what we are well rid of. Amongst the contents 
of these handkerchiefs, in millions of cases every day, 
are such germs as those of tuberculosis, pneumonia, 
diphtheria, influenza, bronchitis, the common cold, and 
a good many others besides. As to the actuality of 
the infection of workers in laundries in this fashion 
there is now no question, and I hope the point may 
soon engage the attention of the law courts. The 
best place for the microbes of disease from our point 
of view is fire, and that is why the Japanese pocket- 
handkerchief may be held up as the model towards 
which we should be wise in approximating, in regard 
to clothing in general, as closely as possible. It may 
be added, as regards the question of beauty, that there 
is no relation whatever between expensiveness and 
durability, on the one hand, and beauty and fitness for 
the adornment of the human person on the other hand. 

Is it not somewhat remarkable that the man who 
would be horrified at the idea of not changing his 
underclothing at least once a week should be content 
practically to ignore altogether the question of chang- 
ing or cleaning his outer clothing? The ideal of a 
new suit once a week doubtless sounds absurd, but 
any athletic reader is well aware that at least such 
a garment as trousers can be made in materials which 
stand washing, as of course all trousers should really 
be washed. 

One other general matter must here be referred 
to — disposed of it cannot be. The reader xheedu- 
who desires detailed and dogmatic advice cation of 
may reprove me for not stating definitely the skin 
what weight of clothing, for instance, a man should 
wear, and how he should alter it at different times 



60 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of the year, if at all. Hitherto it has been merely 
hinted in an earlier chapter that many people make 
themselves susceptible to cold by refusing, as a rule, 
to expose themselves to it; yet, on the other hand, in 
this chapter it has been hinted that warmer clothing 
involves economy in food, and probably also in the 
work of the excretory organs. If only it were possible 
to say that a man should wear as little clothing as he 
possibly can, or, on the other hand, that a man should 
be warmly clad up to the limits of comfort, the foolish 
reader might be grateful, and doubtless attention 
would be drawn to the opinion. The wise reader 
would rightly write me down as a fool. Here, as else- 
where, we must observe the golden mean, and we must 
also observe the facts already insisted upon, of the 
unique adaptability of man, which is such that you, 
for instance, may go about cheerily in winter clad in a 
fashion which would almost certainly expose your 
neighbour to pneumonia. 

This adaptability of man does not extend to his own 
bodily temperature. That is the same in the tropics 
or in the polar regions, in the negro or the Esquimaux, 
in summer and in winter. The adaptability shows 
itself in the fact that under all these varying condi- 
tions, to which may be added immense variations as 
regards the warmth of his clothing, even in a given 
place, he is able to maintain his temperature at a 
constant level by an automatic mechanism, of which 
the skin is the actual instrument, though the brain 
is the worker behind it. It is not well, then, even 
though we call in clothing to help us to maintain our 
temperature, that we should permit the skin to lose 
its wonderful function in this respect — as most of us 
do. The principle of what, according to the point of 
view, we may call vital economy or vital laziness, 
insures that no organ of the body will do its work if 
that work is done for it. Dose vour stomach with 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 61 

pepsin and it will cease to produce pepsin — this is 
one instance of an infinite number. Undoubtedly the 
mind of man has devised ways of saving labour on 
the part of his body — cooking, for instance. But this 
must not be carried to the point at which its acquired 
incapacity will injure the body, and undoubtedly many 
of us do expose ourselves to grave injury by mal- 
education of the skin. 

In the first place, we little realise our extraordinary 
capacity for maintaining our temperature and for 
adapting ourselves to different external conditions iti 
this respect. Darwin tells us that, when in Terra 
del Fuego, his own party, well clothed and sitting by 
the fire, were grateful for its warmth ; whilst the naked 
natives, who were farther from the fire, were "stream- 
ing with perspiration at undergoing such a roasting." 
The reader will say that this contrast of need was a 
matter of race, but what about the exposure of the 
chest by women of our own civilisation in the evening? 
What about the "pneumonia blouses," which, difficult 
to defend as they are, one cannot dogmatically assert 
to cause pneumonia? The skin, however, must be 
educated to these capacities. As regards teeth, we 
can afford, perhaps, to let their education go, trusting 
in a continuous supply of cooks and dentists. But 
we cannot do without this function of the skin unless 
we are prepared to spend the rest of our lives in a 
physiological chamber filled with air of constant tem- 
perature. 

This is not to defend the hardening process, by 
which so many children are, or used to be, hardened 
into the stiffness of death. But it is to defend the 
ideal which was so injudiciously striven for. Here, 
again, we are faced with the golden mean, so easy 
to talk about, so easy to approve, so desperately 
difficult to attain in almost every sphere of life. 

Continuing the general discussion of clothing, to 



62 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

which this chapter is confined, we must consider the 
question of clothing in hot weather. The chief func- 
Clothine tion of clothing, from the point of view 
in hot of physiology, being to retain the animal 

weather heat, we must realise that when the external 

temperature is hotter than our own, all the practical 
relations of clothing are reversed. Its sole physi- 
ological function now becomes that of protecting the 
skin from the sun and from dirt. There thus arises 
a real conflict between the demands of the sense of 
decency and the need to keep cool. This conflict, in 
the case of women's lower clothing, may be serious. 
Men are more fortunate in this regard, but women 
"score" as regards the clothing of the chest. 

First of all, then, in hot weather the unexceptioned 
principle that clothing must be loose is peculiarly ap- 
plicable. Anything that interferes with cutaneous ven- 
tilation is a source of discomfort and of injury to 
health. If the skin is kept scrupulously clean, the 
question of the odor humanus does not arise. It is 
said that the odor humanus does not exist in a Japanese 
crowd. Otherwise, however, the necessity of ventila- 
tion is more urgent than ever. We note in passing that 
the best ventilating material is also the most absorbent. 

As regards protection from the sun, the simple prin- 
ciple is that sunstroke is due to the action of sunlight 
— or possibly certain invisible solar rays — upon the 
higher portions of the nervous system — the brain and 
spinal cord. The possessor of abundant hair is already 
protected in some degree, so far as the brain is con- 
cerned. The ordinary clothing protects the lower part 
of the spinal cord. The back of the neck, however, 
constitutes the weakest point, protected as it is neither 
by hair, hat nor clothing, and doubtless mild cases of 
sunstroke do arise in temperate climes from the care- 
less exposure of the spinal cord at this level. The 
appropriate means of prevention by hat-brim or hand- 



THE NEED OF CLOTHES 63 

kerchief are too obvious to be detailed. It may be 
added in passing — since the subject of food can never 
be divorced from that of clothing — that since the phys- 
iological problem in warm weather is the diametrical 
opposite of the problem in cold weather, viz. not to keep 
the temperature up, but to keep it down, we shall do 
well to begin at the beginning by diminishing the sup- 
ply of food or fuel. The body is perfectly aware of 
this fact, and indicates it by a diminution of appe- 
tite which not one man in a hundred has the sense to 
appreciate or respect. 



64 VI 

CLOTHING IN DETAIL 

The natural clothing of the head is the hair, and the 
general rule — doubtless with one definite exception — 
The cloth- snou ld be that no other clothing is neces- 
ingofthe sary. The hygienic function of clothing 
head should not have any place — except as 

regards direct sunlight — so far as the head is con- 
cerned. The question of decoration is, of course, dis- 
tinct; and, in point of fact, it is decoration that both 
sexes, and not women only, are chiefly concerned with 
in regard to the clothing of the head. The only incon- 
venience women pay for this desire is in the matters 
of time and trouble, anxiety, and perhaps expense. 
The principles of decoration which they follow are con- 
sciously or unconsciously made compatible with the 
preservation of the hair itself, which is, of course, 
vastly superior in decorative value to any head-gear. 

It may quite dogmatically be said here that there 
is no adequate physiological or evolutionary reason 
to account for the contrast in durability between the 
hair of men and the hair of women ; that is to say, no 
inherent reason. The hair of the scalp is not a sex 
character, or, if it be, it is a character common to both 
sexes. The scalp is merely human, not male or female. 
It is the same in structure and function in both sexes. 
So also is its blood-supply. Indeed, if any evolution- 
ary factor be called in here, it might be expected that, 
the hair being a means of sex attraction, natural 
selection would have arranged for its greater dura- 
bility in men than in women, since the individual man 
retains his possible racial importance to a very much 
later age — two, three, or more decades — than the indi- 
vidual woman. It is then to personal habit and not 
to anything inherent that we must attribute the con- 
trast already alluded to. 

To the unaccustomed eye, if not to the artist's eye 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 65 

at any time, the uncovered or merely veil-covered hair 
of, say, the Genoese girl, is more beautiful than any 
hat or bonnet can possibly make it. The ordinary 
feminine hat, however, is hygienically innocent, as the 
duration of women's hair goes to prove. Being at- 
tached to the hair, and not to the head, the woman's 
hat is often her one article of clothing which conforms 
to the fundamental requirement that all clothing should 
be loose. It does not appreciably raise the temper- 
ature of the scalp, and usually has the virtue of light 
weight. 

The head covering of men, whatever its form, has 
nothing good to be said for it. If the delicate skin 
of the face, mostly unprotected by hair, extremely 
rich in nerves and blood-vessels, is none the worse for 
complete exposure, there is no reason to suppose that 
the thick and protected skin of the scalp is in any 
greater need of artificial covering, except only in so far 
as its exposure to direct sunlight may affect the under- 
lying brain. Even when the hair has been destroyed 
by the hat, combined with that amazing lack of cleanli- 
ness which, as regards the scalp, is the general rule 
for both sexes, a hat is not really necessary except in 
order to hide the loss of hair. Emphasis must be laid 
on the phrase, "direct sunlight," since it is this, and 
not heat as such, that head-covering really protects 
from. On the contrary, so far as heat is concerned, 
male head-covering in general raises the temperature 
of the scalp, increases the amount of impure venous 
blood in it, and, therefore, in the coverings of the brain. 
The head-gear which protects from sunstroke may 
therefore promote heat-stroke. 

Experiments have been made which show how mark- 
edly the various kinds of male head-gear, both hats 
and caps, raise the temperature of the scalp. They 
do this, in a word, by interfering with its ventilation. 
Now it is a cardinal principle that the head should be 



66 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

kept cool. Furthermore, the gaseous and other prod- 
ucts of the scalp are poisonous to it; the products of 
the life of all living things, without exception, are 
poisonous to them. The nearest approach to an excep- 
tion is found in the case of the yeast plant and the 
alcohol which it produces; yet even here the plant is 
killed when the alcohol reaches a certain small pro- 
portion. Thus the ordinary conditions of the male scalp 
are as follows : — It is usually dirty ; the hair it carries 
is a trap or filter for dust, dirt, and microbes ; it is 
rich in oily secretion really designed for the health of 
the hair, but admirably fitted for the nourishment and 
culture of microbes. Take the average man at any 
given moment, and, whilst the rest of his body is mod- 
erately clean, his scalp is simply filthy. This scalp, 
then, is covered for a considerable proportion of every 
day with artificial clothing, notwithstanding the fact 
that it is the only part of the human body which retains 
the natural clothing, viz. hair. This artificial and 
essentially superfluous garment, then, overheats the 
dirty scalp by preventing radiation and evaporation. 
The heat thus accumulated causes over-secretion, and 
is, of course, highly favourable to microbic growth. 
In the majority of cases in cities the fundamental 
principle that clothing should be loose is infringed, 
and infringed in the worst possible site — namely, one in 
which there is a rigid underlying tissue — bone — which 
cannot yield or adapt itself to the external constriction. 
The pressure exerted by the rim of the hat upon the 
blood-vessels affects both the veins and the arteries. 
Interfering with the arterial supply, it diminishes the 
flow of pure blood with its oxygen, its microbe-destroy- 
ing substances, and its food. Veins, however, are always 
more readily constricted than arteries, being thinner 
walled, usually more superficial, and having less pres- 
sure of fluid within them. Thus the venous return 
from the scalp is especially interfered with, with the 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 67 

consequent chronic congestion of deteriorated and 
poisonous blood. Add to this the fact that, owing to 
the structure of the skull and scalp, and their general 
"tightness," the circulation is in any case somewhat 
difficult — especially, it would seem, through that part 
of the crown and the top of the head at each side, at 
some distance from the middle line, where baldness most 
commonly begins. Is it then surprising that men com- 
monly lose their hair? Is it not surprising that any 
of them retain it? 

If a writer is to be practical, he must compromise- 
And it is presumably useless to declare that the hard- 
rimmed hat of any kind whatever is an offensive ab- 
surdity, serving solely the function of decoration, and 
thereby almost certainly destroying the natural and 
most decorative decoration, which is the hair. There is 
no good word to be said for this garment. If, how- 
ever, it is to be employed, the rim must be soft and 
flexible, as in the Panama hat — not the strawboater; 
the total weight must be as small as possible; there 
must be ventilation, though this will in any case be 
imperfect; the hat must be worn as little as possible; 
and the wearer must abandon the principle that the 
part of the body which is most exposed to dirt and the 
most rapid accumulator of it is the one part which need 
only casually be cleaned. 

If we are to wear anything upon our heads at all, 
the cap is preferable, but of course it should be a wash- 
able cap, and not the excessively dirty thing with 
which we are commonly contented. 

Any notion as to the necessity of head-gear on the 
score of protection from cold is obviously absurd and 
baseless. In any case the normal head is protected 
from cold as is no other part of the body. Even if 
it were not, the example of the face should suffice to 
correct this delusion. You may ride hatless in a motor 
car or on a motor bus, in any kind of weather, wet or 



68 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

fine, except direct blazing sunlight, without any evil 
consequences. This, of course, is not for a moment to 
assert that any part of the body, or any of its func- 
tions, can throw off in a day the effects of years of 
mal-education, but any reader can very quickly incul- 
cate sound habits in this respect, and though there 
can be little doubt as to the inheritance of a tendency 
to baldness in many cases, there can be no question 
that the hair will last longer under a clean and rational 
regime than otherwise. 

It is, of course, as Darwin showed a generation ago, 
a natural attribute of the male animal, man included, 
that he desires to appear conspicuous, imposing, re- 
markable, in the presence of the other sex. It is hoped 
that the head-gear will attract attention to the most 
interesting and characteristic part of the body, which 
is the head. In a word, man really wears his head-gear 
in order to enhance his face, as woman does ; with the 
added motive, in many cases, of increasing the appar- 
ent height. In some future day, when rational and 
complete education comes into vogue, there will be 
more faces on view which have individuality and char- 
acter and can stand on their own merits without the 
aid of these subterfuges. 

The white collar may be heartily approved of. 
Mr. Bernard Shaw's description of starch as "white 
Neck-wear mu d" * s °f course amusing, but there is 
no more to be said for it. In point of fact, 
starch is not mud, but a conspicuously clean thing in 
history and in tendency, and there is something to be 
said for the smooth surface which it imparts to arti- 
cles of clothing, as any visitor to a modern surgical 
theatre may realise. The high collar is, of course, 
senseless, except in so far as it might conceivably pro- 
tect the relatively unprotected portion of the spinal 
cord from the injurious action of direct and intense 
sunlight. From the point of view of beauty, it may 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 69 

be noted that anything which interferes with the nat- 
ural poise and movement of the head is an obstacle 
to that grace of expression which is a deep and lasting 
ingredient of human attractiveness. The modern 
double collar is the superior of its predecessor as re- 
gards the influenece of its edge upon the skin of the 
neck. A sharp or frayed collar edge furnishes a con- 
venient instrument for rubbing bacteria into the skin, 
and is thus a very common contributing cause of boils 
and carbuncles. 

The neck-band and collar must be loose, of course. 
It is an absurdity that when anyone faints we should 
be directed to loosen the clothing. There should be 
nothing to loosen anywhere, from top to toe. 

An objection to the white linen collar, as to all light 
and pleasant articles of clothing, is the speed with which 
they become dirty. The dirt, however, is almost wholly 
atmospheric. City dwellers scarcely realise the foulness 
of the mess in which they grope. Within the present 
century, of course, we shall obtain smokeless cities, and 
then we shall be able to clothe ourselves more pleasantly 
and decently. 

There is a good word to be said for the frequently 
changed and readily soiled shirt as an index of cleanli- 
ness, and as a means of protecting the less The 
frequently changed underclothing. The shirt 
stiff shirt front is, of course, silly. The flannel shirt, 
for those who can tolerate it, is doubtless a thoroughly 
sensible garment. It has the great advantage of loose- 
ness, and, being loose, is warmer in proportion to its 
weight than a close-fitting vest. It should be made 
of a thoroughly absorbent texture. Some men resent 
woollen clothing passing closely over the elbow, as do 
the sleeves of an undervest; and in the case of people 
with rheumatic tendencies the flannel shirt may be com- 
mended as supplying warmth to these important and 
somewhat susceptible joints. The flannel shirt also has 



70 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the virtue of supplying a reasonable amount of warmth 
to what may be called the lumbago region, which is 
also approximately the kidney region. In this respect 
a warm, loose absorbent shirt serves to cover the gap 
between the upper and lower garments. If, to take an 
extreme case, a small boy is to be clothed in that par- 
ticularly absurd garment, an Eton jacket, the flannel 
shirt may be certainly commended for him. Cut some- 
what long, also, this garment is of value as protecting 
the region of the sciatic nerve, which, unfortunately, 
there is no need to define more precisely. In passing 
from this subject, we may note that trousers should 
perhaps be cut somewhat high, in order to protect 
the middle zone of the body. 

It has to be remembered that the upper part of the 
trunk is the chest, and that this structure has a back 
Coat and as weu< as a front. The fact is commonly 
waistcoat forgotten by those who wear the absurd 
garment called a chest-protector, with which they cover 
the front of the chest-wall between the two lungs, and 
is also forgotten by the incompetent doctor who, in 
examining the chest, confines his inquiry to the front, 
though it is well known that the earliest signs of tuber- 
culosis of the lungs are more commonly to be found in 
the region of the shoulder-blade. The doctor who con- 
fines himself to the front of the chest in examining the 
lungs is either inexcusably ignorant or inexcusably 
careless, or both. 

It follows that, so far as reasonable protection of 
the lungs from cold is concerned, the waistcoat a3 
ordinarily made is somewhat difficult to defend. The 
natural explanation, however, is that the open coat or 
jacket does not profess to protect the front of the 
chest, and the warm part of the waistcoat is designed 
to fill this gap. The question of warmth, however, is 
not the ^really important one for consideration here. 
There is one natural, adequate, and never-to-be- 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 71 

forgotten way of protecting the lungs from cold, and 
that is by breathing through the nose. If any reader 
will for a moment consider, he will realise that the 
temperature of the lungs can be far more readily 
lowered by exposing them to cold air from within than 
by exposing the outside of the chest-wall to cold. 
Nothing could be more foolish than to wrap the chest- 
wall in a chest-protector, and then inhale cold air 
through the mouth. If this book gave forcible state- 
ment to no other true opinion than that one should 
breathe through the nose, it would have justified itself. 
It has already been pointed out that in nose-breathing 
the air is warmed, and it may be added that in any 
case we could never tolerate the breathing of the air 
of temperate zones if this air were passed directly into 
the lungs. As a matter of fact, it is only the air in 
the upper part of the air-passages that is changed 
at each ordinary respiration, so that the cool air from 
without, already partly warmed by its passage through 
the nose, is much further warmed before it is diffused 
in the lungs themselves. 

These remarks will not be held irrelevant by the 
reader who realises that they indicate the true fashion 
in which to keep the chest warm. The second im- 
portant point about the coat and waistcoat depends 
upon the fact that they cover a part of the body, 
namely, the chest, the absolutely free and ceaseless 
movement of which alone meets the fundamental vital 
necessity, which is to breathe. Here again a sound 
hygiene introduces us to the study of disease. I say 
again that no book can perform curative medicine 
directly. Yet it is possible in a book to lay down 
rules of life which, if followed, would render consump- 
tion sanatoria, for instance, superfluous. I will not tell 
you how to treat a cough, but I will tell you how to 
avoid the need for coughing. 

The importance of full expansion of the lungs may 



72 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of course be assumed as a likely principle. Its likeli- 
hood is reinforced by those numerous pathological 
Clothes and inquiries which show that the germs of 
breathing consumption very commonly take up their 
first abode in the lung at the point where its movement 
and the change of air and blood within it is least vigor- 
ous and free. Quite lately this principle has been 
applied to the treatment of consumption by means of 
breathing exercises carefully graduated and designed. 
It seems quite clear that the systematic use of these 
exercises is of real value as a truly curative measure 
for this disease. It certainly can hold up its head in 
this respect amongst the ordinary medicinal measures, 
which may be comprehensively described as the admin- 
istration of poisons in less than fatal doses — or shall we 
say less than immediately fatal doses? As to the value 
of adequate breathing in the preservation of the health 
of the lungs, and in the prevention of tuberculosis in 
especial, there can be no question. It does not suffice 
to breathe pure air; it must be properly breathed. 
Even if the air be impure, it must be breathed in any 
case, and is better breathed well than badly. Prac- 
tising physicians are not infrequently struck by the 
existence of what would appear to be some subtle differ- 
ence between fresh air and open air in their value for a 
patient. This difference, I believe, will defy chemical 
analysis. It may be guessed that the superior value 
of open air really depends upon the fact that in it the 
patient is stimulated to breathe more deeply. Indoors 
the air may be of the same chemical composition, but 
less adequately breathed. 

The truth is that all living organs and functions 
require adequate exercise for their health. This, at 
any rate, is true of all the organs and functions con- 
cerned with the individual maintenance, though modern 
views of heredity explain to my mind how it is that the 
principle does not similarly apply to the organs and 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 73 

functions concerned with racial maintenance. At any 
rate, it applies to the lungs. Their health is depend- 
ent upon adequate exercise, which the civilised man of 
to-day too commonly denies them. Many of us deny 
it to them altogether ; many others breathe adequately 
only during occasional spells of exercise. The curative 
value of adequate breathing in tuberculosis, which is 
an observation of yesterday, must be regarded as of 
the foremost importance in its bearing upon the duty 
and practice of health. 

All this is said here not with the understanding that 
I shall not say it elsewhere — for it cannot be too fre- 
quently repeated — but because it is strictly relevant 
to our present question. So far as the lower part of 
the trunk is concerned, warmth may or may not be 
a chief consideration ; so far as the upper part of the 
trunk is concerned, the real question of warmth is a 
question of breathing through the right channel; the 
most important question as regards clothing is that 
not in the smallest degree shall it hamper the move- 
ments of breathing. 

The point here, then, is that the coat and waistcoat 
must not be tightly cut, and that this principle applies 
especially to the lower part of the chest. The shape 
of the chest is that of a cone, having the apex at the 
neck. The most capacious part of the lungs is there- 
fore lowest. The natural act of breathing is therefore 
so performed as to effect especially the expansion of 
the lower part of the chest. In other words, normal 
breathing in both sexes and at all ages is diaphragm- 
atic or abdominal — effected, that is to say, by the 
midriff or diaphragm, the great muscle which is 
stretched across the middle of the trunk, forming the 
floor of the chest and the roof of the abdomen. It 
used to be, and perhaps still is, stated that a woman, 
though not a baby girl, normally breathes especially 
by the movement of the upper part of her chest. This 



74 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

is not true. The so-called "collar-bone" breathing" 
of women is an unnatural device, dependent upon the 
fact that the expansion of the lower part of the chest 
is hindered by the corset, the hampering action of 
which is thus attempted to be compensated for. 

The foregoing is physiology, and my subject here 
is not physiology but hygiene, but it is necessarily 
stated in order to demonstrate the grounds for the 
dictum that if the doctrine about looseness of clothing 
applies anywhere, it applies to the waistcoat. That 
is much the most important thing to be said about 
the waistcoat, and I shall say nothing else. 

The reader may well be as weary as I am myself 
of the constant reiteration of the demand for loose- 
Abdominal ness. We have each other's sympathy, 
clothing I hope. Nevertheless, in passing to the 

consideration of the clothing of the abdomen this again 
is the chief demand. The abdominal organs are ex- 
tremely well protected from cold by their position, their 
rich blood supply, their heavy clothing of muscle, and 
in a host of the well-to-do of both sexes they are fur- 
ther protected by a highly superabundant layer of 
abdominal fat. Probably, on the whole, the abdomen 
is really better able to look after its own warmth than 
any other part of the body — the face and hands cer- 
tainly not excepted. We agree, however, to clothe it, 
and the first thing we have to learn is that this also is 
a part of the body the free and ceaseless movement of 
which is scarcely less necessary than that of the chest. 
Abdominal breathing, as its name implies, demands 
the freedom of the diaphragm to move downwards, 
causing the elastic front wall of the abdomen to bulge. 
Tight clothing here, whether in the form of a corset, 
a belt, tight-fitting trousers, or whatever it may be. 
therefore interferes with the proper performance of 
the act of breathing. This, however, is by no means 
all, indicating, indeed, only one-half of the indictment 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 75 

that may be urged against the clothing of many of us, 
in its interference with the functions of the abdomen. 

The front abdominal wall is a structure of deepest 
interest to the anatomist and surgeon, of course, espe- 
cially in consideration of modern operative surgery, 
and also the possibility of partial escape of the abdom- 
inal contents through its weak points. By no means 
less interesting, however, is the physiology of this 
structure, and its importance in aiding the proper 
action of the contents of the abdomen. Essentially 
the front abdominal wall is a sheet of muscle and, 
like muscular tissue in general, it is elastic. Though 
we think of the abdomen as a cavity, it is a cavity that 
is always full. It contains no holes or empty spaces. 
This is insured by the atmospheric pressure outside 
the body, together with the elasticity of the normal 
abdominal wall. Now voluntary muscular tissue, such 
as that which composes the abdominal wall, is not only 
elastic, but in various parts of the body is normally 
and continuously in a state of slight but continuous and 
definite contraction, which is commonly called its tone. 
We remember, further, that this structure with its 
elasticity and tone is in incessant rhythmical movement 
indirectly in consequence of the action of the diaphragm 
in breathing. A considerable part of the act of expira- 
tion is played by the elastic recoil of the abdominal 
wall so soon as the diaphragm relaxes. If this wall 
has lost its mobility, its elasticity, or its tone, the 
normal performance of breathing is by so much ren- 
dered impossible. 

But, further, the continuous pressure of the ab- 
dominal wall upon the abdominal contents regulates 
the amount of blood contained in the abdomen, helping 
to keep up that gentle and even pressure on the veins 
which veins in general require. More important still, 
this exquisitely adapted elastic pressure — to be coun- 
terfeited by no elastic binder or belt ever yet or ever 



76 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

to be contrived — is one of the normal tonics and stim- 
ulants for the movements of the muscular tissue inside 
the abdomen — that of the stomach and bowel. Directly 
the abdominal wall becomes relaxed, losing its tone or 
losing its elasticity from being overstretched — as is 
very commonly the case in gross and over-fed and also 
in merely sedentary persons — the normal aid to the 
action of the stomach and the bowel is withheld. They, 
too, are now apt to become distended, feeble in tone, 
and sluggish in their response to stimuli from their 
contents. In a word, one of the most prevalent bodily 
ills of the present day, viz. constipation, with all that 
it implies, the many evils, small and great, to which 
it contributes, is in no small measure a consequence of 
this failure on the part of the abdominal wall to per- 
form its physiological function. It is more than a 
wall, it is a living wall evolved in adaptation to the 
habits and needs of the organs which it helps to en- 
close. Now, of course, lack of exercise is very largely 
responsible for this common defect in the abdominal 
wall, especially if to this be added the effects of over- 
distention from within due to over-eating or over- 
drinking. It is also true that in some cases the defect 
may be of central origin, and depend upon failure in 
supply of nerve force to the abdominal muscles, the 
health of which, like that of all muscles, depends upon 
the brain. But it is also true beyond a doubt that the 
functions of the abdominal wall are very gravely inter- 
fered with in many cases — doubtless in far more than 
99 per cent, of all women — by the clothing. It is a 
law of life, as we have seen and must see many times 
again, that a supported structure will cease to sup- 
port itself. Put a whole man on crutches, and you 
paralyse his legs. This is a general rule applying 
to education of skin, stomach and reason alike. Thus, 
so soon as we apply artificial supports to the abdomen, 
so soon do we begin to paralyse the abdominal mus- 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 77 

cles. This might be worth while if the support were 
perfect. It is always worth while to save the body by 
the exercise of the mind, in accordance with the general 
principles of progress. Cooking, for instance, is worth 
while. The principle of saving the body, however, 
breaks down directly and whenever the artifice is less 
adequate than that which it replaces. In this case it 
is simply inconceivable that any artificial device can 
ever accomplish the work which is accomplished by the 
normal abdominal wall. 

It is therefore fundamentally wrong, as has been a 
thousand times stated, to support or constrict the 
waist for any purpose whatever, aesthetic or utilitarian. 
The time has not yet come, however, when civilised 
mankind and womankind in general will cease to dis- 
burse incredible sums every year to those who sell aloes 
and one or two other drugs under fancy names — 
whilst at the same time scrupulously continuing to 
paralyse every day the natural means by which the 
abdominal functions should be carried out. We must 
return to this most important subject later, when we 
come to consider the question of constipation in general. 
Here, however, we must merely note, as we shall note 
again, that the question of clothes is necessarily in- 
volved, the normal tone and movement of the abdominal 
wall being part of the naturally appointed means for 
the assistance of the bowel in its normal functions. No 
especial reference need here be made to the corset, 
which is, of course, condemned in the condemnation of 
whatever garment or method of clothing involves con- 
striction, paralysis, and flabbiness of the abdominal 
wall. 

A word must be said regarding the clothing of the 
knees, both on their own account and for general 
application to the protection of large and The 

exposed joints. We must remind ourselves knees 

that every part of the body, without exception, must 



78 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

maintain itself, in order to live and work well, at the 
temperature of 98.4° to 98.6°F. Those parts of the 
body, such as the extremities, which perform little 
combustion for themselves, must have their temperature 
kept up by the hot blood reaching them from the cen- 
tral fires. Joints are conspicuous as structures which 
produce no appreciable warmth for themselves. They 
are also exceedingly complicated, very delicate, very 
constantly used, and by no means infrequently abused. 
The knee, as the largest and most complicated joint 
in the body, is conspicuous in all these respects, and, 
like the joint of the great toe — another conspicuous 
sufferer — it is faced with certain permanent difficulties 
which depend upon man's adoption of the erect atti- 
tude. The manner, for instance, in which the knee is 
locked when a man stands erect is one of the marvels 
of the bodily mechanism. It is therefore no more than 
reasonable that this most important and delicate joint 
should be properly clothed. It would be difficult, I 
grant, to prove that the common exposure of the knees 
of children is actually a source of injury. But it must 
surely be a good rule that, in general, the knees should 
be sensibly clad. They certainly need more attention 
in this respect than the elbows, the corresponding joints 
of the upper limbs, which do much less work, and the 
circulation through which is not apt to become stag- 
nant as it is in the case of the knees, owing to the influ- 
ence of gravitation. Therefore, as on general grounds, 
it is wrong to wear a garter above the knee, as indeed 
below it, or a constricting band of the kind in any part 
of the body. 

The socks or stockings should be absorbent if any 
article of clothing is, and they cannot be too frequently 
The feet changed. Though it is a familiar axiom 
that the feet should be kept warm, we have 
already noted that this special requirement of theirs 
is induced by education. There certainly is no inherent 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 79 

reason why one should catch cold because the feet have 
become cold, any more than in the case of the hands. 
The feet, however, are specially liable to become cold, 
not merely from their nearness to cold surfaces, but 
from the fact that they lie at the base of a column of 
blood which, owing to man's erect attitude, has to ascend 
for a long distance against gravitation. The clothing 
of the feet, then, should be loose. Doubtless, the lia- 
bility to stagnation of the circulation contributes, with 
many other difficulties under which the joint of the 
great toe labours, to its remarkable aptitude for attack 
by poisons generally circulating in the blood, those 
of gout offering the most striking instance. Every 
one is notoriously familiar with the fact that the feet 
are perhaps the worst ventilated parts of the entire 
body, at any rate as clothed for walking. The nearest 
approach to a remedy is furnished by frequent chang- 
ing of thoroughly absorbent foot-wear and by ventila- 
tion of the feet from within, so to say, by means of 
free circulation of the blood. 

The arch of the foot is to be artificially supported 
by the structure of the boot only under the most crit- 
ical and expert surgical advice. This is the last of 
the conceivable remedies for flat foot, and always con- 
stitutes a confession of failure. 

The use of the heel of boots and shoes is not un- 
reasonably to be defended on the grounds, as to which 
there can be no doubt, that the human foot is very 
imperfectly adapted for the erect attitude, and that, 
though man is what is called a plantigrade — that is 
to say, he walks upon the soles of his feet, and not 
upon the tips of his toes, like the digitigrade horse 
or ox — yet his foot is really semi-plantigrade, and it 
is the ball of the toes that it is really adapted for 
walking upon. It is the ball of the toes that we walk 
upon, of course, when we say that we walk tip-toe. 
The ballet dancer, the horse, and the ox alone walk 



80 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

really tip-toe, or indeed, in the case of the animals, 
tip-nail. 

The heel, then, for serious purposes, may well be 
specially protected. The object, however, is protec- 
tion, not elevation. What we require is merely some- 
thing rigid to protect the skin and the underlying 
bone from injury due to uneven pressure. If the ac- 
quired characters of individuals were transmissible to 
their children, we should now, no doubt, after so many 
ages, be endowed with, shall I say, tack-proof heels, 
but heredity does not work in that fashion. 

Directly, however, in addition to mere protection 
of the heel, we add its elevation, we commit a cardinal 
error which frustrates the whole mechanics of the foot, 
and injures the instep and the toes alike. The weight 
of the body is naturally transmitted through a line 
which passes through the heel. When the heel is raised 
this axis is altered, and the weight now impinges upon 
the instep, with its wonderful arch and flexible joints. 
These, of course, are necessarily rendered rigid, the 
support of the arch is interfered with, everything that 
gives elasticity and grace to the gait is destroyed. 
There is no kind of defence for the high heel. Not only 
does it injure the foot, not only does it augment the 
pressure, in any case unnatural, to which the joints 
of the toes are subjected, but also, by interfering with 
the elasticity of the gait, it insures that walking shall 
involve a series of small shocks to the entire body, 
shocks chiefly borne by the spinal column, and primar- 
ily shared in by the brain and spinal cord. 

The use of rubber for the heels of boots and shoes 
is an excellent and highly-to-be-commended innova- 
tion. It performs a real service in reducing the jars 
of walking, and it is one of the very few modern inven- 
tions which tend to reduce rather than increase the 
strain to which our ears are subjected. 

It seems to be the case that the second toe is 



CLOTHING IN DETAIL 81 

naturally longer, by a very small amount, than the 
first toe, but it is, of course, much more ^he 
readily bent, and therefore, in choosing toes 
boots and shoes, we commonly determine their length 
by the length of the inner border of the foot. They 
are thus made long enough to accommodate the great 
toe in its extended position, but the second toe, in order 
to find room at all, has to be slightly bent. Thus 
probably the large majority of all feet amongst civil- 
ised people display some measure of the condition which 
is commonly known as hammer-toe. This often becomes 
a real nuisance. A corn often forms on the over-bent 
joint, and walking is seriously interfered with. Until 
quite recently the second toe was in many cases ampu- 
tated altogether by way of remedy. We should, of 
course, have our boots long enough, and x avoid these 
inconveniences. In this connection there is something 
to be said for the American boot. 

The great toe is, however, much more seriously 
affected by unsuitable clothing. Its principal joint 
is, in any case, as Darwin pointed out, in permanent 
difficulties owing to our erect attitude and manner of 
progression. As if these were not enough, practically 
every boot and shoe that is made complicates the mat- 
ter further by permanently altering the axis of the 
joint. The inner border of the foot should be a 
straight line, but the inner border of practically no 
boot or shoe is a straight line. The consequence is 
that the toe is bent outwards, and the joint, which 
is incessantly used in walking, is compelled to work 
at an unnatural angle. Probably this one fact is 
sufficient, I suspect, to account for the unique sus- 
ceptibility of this joint to the poisons of gout. As 
every reader knows, another trouble called a bunion 
is often apt to arise, this being due wholly to the 
unnatural deformity caused by our unnatural foot- 
wear. The cure of a bunion is difficult or impossible. 



82 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

Its prevention is perfectly easy on paper, perfectly 
easy in practice, so far as the mechanical require- 
ments are concerned, but at bottom it depends upon 
a state of the mind which permits the owner of the 
feet in question to give his great toes fair treatment, 
custom and appearance notwithstanding. In order 
to prevent bunion, have the inner side of the boot 
straight. 

It is the boot, again, that is responsible for the con- 
dition called in-growing toe-nail. The treatment of 
this is no concern of mine here. It is due to too tight 
boots, and I, for one, do not believe that it has any- 
thing whatever to do with any particular fashion in 
which the nails may or may not be cut. It is well to 
cut the toe-nails more frequently than many people 
do, and to keep them clean, but this will not prevent 
the formation of in-growing toe-nail if the boots are 
tight, and their intermittent pressure — in parallel with 
other cases, such as corns, of which no more need be 
said — stimulates the growth of the nail sideways. 



VII 83 

THE NEED OF EXERCISE 

The word asceticism does not really mean the denial 
of the body, the refusal of anything, but has the far 
wiser and truer meaning of exercise. This word, in 
its turn, we commonly and conveniently take to mean 
muscular exercise only ; and here a writer who attempts 
to be fair and to indicate the true mean between ex- 
tremes is at once beset with difficulty. He knows that 
man is a muscular animal, that the muscular system 
is a whole, and that some measure of exercise remains 
desirable, even if only for the sake of the relatively 
few muscles which continue and will always continue 
to be of incessant use for man. He knows, too, that 
the health of certain parts of the muscular system 
determines the health of many internal organs, and 
that the muscles, even if their primary use of movement 
were made superfluous, would still remain essential as 
the fireplaces of the body — the chief sources of its heat. 
He knows also that exercise takes us very frequently 
into the fresh air, and, yet again, that the need for it 
is all the more urgent in an age of general over-eating, 
the ill effects of which it in some measure neutralises. 
On the other hand, he sees the most monstrous claims 
made for systems of physical culture, and finds thriv- 
ing institutions in every capital which preach not 
merely that the first thing is to be a good animal, 
which is true, but that this is the only thing, though 
he knows that man is a mind, and imperils his human 
state whenever he forgets this truth. Lastly, he knows 
that moderate and balanced opinions never make the 
appeal which is the privilege of extreme opinions. 
Fortunately, however, we have in the principles of the 
new asceticism an efficient guide. 

By the cult of muscle I mean the modern craze 
which teaches, in effect, that there is nothing great 
in man but muscle, that to be a good animal is every- 



84 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

thing, that the whole trend of evolution towards the 
supersession of the physical by the psychical is an 
The cult error, and that the man should be ashamed 
of muscle of himself who permits a single muscle, 
however humble or obscure, to remain any smaller than 
the utmost exercise can make it, even though it be 
palpably a relic from some period when our ancestors 
grasped the boughs of trees with their feet, or used 
their mother's tails as towing-ropes. 

The cult of muscle, like cults in general, is highly 
profitable to its chief priests, amongst whom are to 
be included some of the most enterprising and most 
skilful men of business of the day. When a recent 
outcry was raised in Great Britain regarding the 
physical state of the people, and a report was issued 
concerning the school children of Scotland, the most 
conspicuous of these advocates of muscle issued a copy 
of the report printed in double columns, so that his 
remarks might be placed opposite each of its con- 
clusions ; and ever the burden of his song was physical 
training. The theory is that, having killed many 
babies outright by compelling them to eat poison, drink 
poison, and breathe poison, and having administered 
similar nourishment to the survivors, defying for years 
together the most elementary and cardinal principles of 
ventilation, cleanliness, and diet, you may make good 
the damage by muscular exercise — even to the extent, 
presumably, of straightening rickety bones and re- 
building rotten teeth. To any one who knows what 
the physical state of the lower classes is, what are its 
causes, and what are bound to be its ultimate conse- 
quences if these things continue, it is nothing less than 
sickening to find the cult of muscle applauded and 
accepted in this preposterous fashion. As I have said 
elsewhere, it may be possible to gain a spiritual para- 
dise by a death-bed repentance after years of villainy; 
but if the doctrine of consequence means anything, it 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 85 

assures us that a physical paradise is not to be won 
by a belated and disproportionate and spasmodic 
attention to one of the minor laws of health, after the 
most important years have been spent in defiance of 
the primal laws of man's physical being. If we are to 
breed the kind of people upon which alone an empire 
can be built, it is a cult not of muscle but of mother- 
hood that first demands our knee. 

But apart from the services of physical training 
for long-poisoned childhood, certain of its general 
claims require criticism. Its whole principle consists 
in a denial of the primary truth that in man mind is 
the master and body the servant. Further, it wholly 
ignores the evolutionary truth that there is, as Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff puts it, a disharmony in man's 
present constitution, whereby he inherits from a non- 
human state a host of structures, muscles included, 
which, however interesting, are only to be regarded 
as a most embarrassing kind of heirlooms, and the 
tendency of which to decadence is to be welcomed as 
a sign of progress. Put back the clock, says the cult 
of muscle; whatever else you may forget, remember 
that you are at bottom an animal. The real business 
of your mind is to indicate how best your muscles may 
be developed. Be muscular and you will be happy. 

But the principles of the new asceticism will guide 
us here. They teach that the cultivation of muscle 
is a mean%, and not an end. They remind us that, as 
physiology knows, muscles are really the end organs 
of certain kinds of nerves called motor; and that the 
muscles for which the nervous system has no purpose 
are simply a burden. A muscle is a living organ of 
great inherent vitality, whether it be used or not. Its 
upkeep demands a large supply of food and a con- 
stantly working apparatus for disposing of its waste 
products. The highly muscular man, developed by one 
of the modern systems, requires much food, and throws 



86 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

a heavy burden upon his digestive and excretory 
organs. If he is a professional weight-lifter, the mone- 
tary and vital expenditure is perhaps warranted, but 
otherwise its propriety is highly dubious. The new 
ascetic, however, remembers that the brain is the man, 
and for all cults he has one question: How will your 
ritual serve my brain, which is, physically speaking, 
myself? It is by this that they must be judged. 

Now it is doubtless true that the boy or youth who 
is successful in his studies is often conspicuous in 
Mind games, though innumerable exceptions to 

versus this rule exist, and though everyone knows 

muscle the athletic boy or youth who is, inter alia, 

a fool. The boy with a good nervous system and 
with abundant energy expresses his good fortune very 
often both in study and in sport, but there remains a 
permanent and necessary antagonism between develop- 
ment of mind and development of muscle beyond a 
certain point. The highly muscular man makes large 
demands upon his blood for his digestive tract and for 
the muscles themselves. By so much must the brain be 
depleted. Again, the exercise of muscles definitely 
produces poisonous products which cause fatigue. The 
blood of a fatigued dog, injected into an animal that 
has been at rest, will immediately produce the symp- 
toms of fatigue in it. These toxic products have been 
definitely proved to poison the brain. Nearly half a 
century ago Herbert Spencer pointed out, in that won- 
derful masterpiece, his book on Education, that 
"Nature is a strict accountant ; and if you demand of 
her in one direction more than she is prepared to lay 
out, she balances the account by making a deduction 
elsewhere. . . . Excess of bodily exercise dimin- 
ishes the power of thought. ... In peasants who 
spend their lives in muscular labour, the activity of 
mind is very small." And now Professor Mosso of 
Turin, the greatest living student of the subject, lias 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 87 

conclusively proved that the poisonous by-products 
of muscular exercise, circulating in the blood, tempo- 
rarily depress the brain. All these things the new- 
ascetic must remember. In determining, then, the value 
of exercise, its function, and its most useful forms, the 
mind is to be our criterion, and not the circumference 
of the upper arm: brain, not biceps. The question is 
not whether a certain form of exercise increases the 
bulk of any muscle or all the muscles, but whether 
brain and mind are better for it. If so, it is good; if 
not, it is bad; even though you may have developed 
to the utmost every muscle in your body, and are as 
hideous an example of hypertrophy as any modern 
wrestler. 

The value of exercise, then, is not at all that it makes 
us muscularly stronger, with the consequent necessity 
of having to devote a higher proportion of The value 
our vital energy to the muscular upkeep; of exercise 
but exercise is valuable, for instance, because, quite 
apart from the use of muscles as agents of locomotion, 
their reasonable maintenance is necessary in order to 
keep us warm. They are the chief sources of the body- 
heat. Further, the general health of the muscles — ■ 
which, as in the case of all living structures, every- 
where, cannot be maintained without use — is desirable 
in that certain bodily functions (as, for instance, those 
of the stomach and bowel) are not properly performed 
unless the voluntary muscles of the body wall are in a 
state of healthy tone. Again, a reasonable activity 
of the muscles tends in some measure to protect us 
from the consequences of over-eating in which we 
habitually indulge. But the moment that exercise 
develops the muscles, except in people who live by their 
muscles, to an extent beyond that indicated by these 
requirements, then it simply increases the burden of 
the body which has to be borne by the mind. 

If the voluntary muscles daily become less important 



88 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

in the life of man, certain of the involuntary muscles 
Exercise retain, and must always retain, their pri- 
and the maeval importance. Of these the chief is the 

heart heart, far and away the most important 

muscle in the body. The peculiar imbecility of our 
present theory of exercise is nowhere so well instanced 
as in the drill regulations of the British army, which 
are much devoted to the enlargement of the chest. 
This end is attained by certain disastrous exercises 
which, whilst enlarging the chest and developing cer- 
tain voluntary muscles, very frequently indeed strain 
the heart — to the utter ruin of the soldier, of course, 
even as a machine. Here a doctor and there a doctor, 
braving official displeasure, have protested against this 
drill, and it will shortly be abolished, we may hope. 
Meanwhile, it stands on record that in the year 1908, 
the powers that be devote themselves, notwithstanding 
the lessons of the recent Boer and Russo-Japanese 
wars, in the first place, to making the soldier into an 
automatic machine, and, secondly, adopt to this end 
means of all conceivable the most exquisitely calculated 
to ruin him even as a machine. 

But in truth exercise has scarcely a more valuable 
function than that, in using the muscles which we can 
see, and in which we take so anachronistic an interest, 
it exercises and preserves the health of the heart, upon 
the health of which body and mind are equally depend- 
ent. This, then, is a chief function of reasonable exer- 
cise. The phrase does not exclude violent exercise, by 
which is usually meant such as causes us to become out 
of breath. But if the health of the heart is to be con- 
sidered, violent exercise must not be too long pursued, 
even though by training the advent of shortness of 
breath may be indefinitely delayed. It has been recently 
stated that there is scarcely a professional cyclist to 
be found in Germany with a healthy heart. 

There are two ways in which the heart responds to 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 89 

excessive exercise. In some cases it undergoes develop- 
ment or hypertrophy in response to the need. Such 
hypertrophy does not matter in the case of an ordinary 
muscle. In the case of the heart — though it may be 
indispensable in heart disease — it is always a source 
of danger, since the blood supply of the heart itself is 
inexorably limited, and since the last state of cardiac 
hypertrophy is fatty degeneration of the over-grown 
muscle. On the other hand, the heart may fail to make 
a vital response to the increased pressure within it 
which over-exercise entails, and in consequence it simply 
dilates. The dilated or over-stretched heart is of 
course inefficient: and this is the kind of heart which, 
as the result of months of carefully misdirected labour, 
we commonly induce in our recruits. This also is the 
kind of heart with which a man returns home after a 
holiday which he has devoted to "healthy exercise.'" 
Having nicely adapted his heart during eleven months 
in the year to the extremely modest requirements in- 
volved in a little quiet walking and much sitting in a 
chair, he devotes himself during the remaining period 
to various athletic feats designed to set him up for 
the coming year. Not infrequently the greater part 
of the coming year is spent in slowly and painfully 
coaxing the heart, thus overstrained, to return to its 
natural size. 

Thus whilst reasonable exercise of the external mus- 
cles is of service in reasonably exercising the most 
important of the invisible muscles, over-exercise may 
do it grave injury — but rarely, perhaps, irreparable, 
yet none the less to be deplored and avoided. Should the 
reader inquire as to what I mean by reasonable exer- 
cise, as to how many miles, upon what gradient, he, 
the particular reader, should daily cover, in how many 
minutes — the answer is that, not wishing to be taken 
for a fool, I do not propose to answer that question. 
The reader, however, must be so described if he cannot 



90 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

find out the golden mean for himself — which, as likely 
as not, of course, is the golden mean for no other. It 
is to be added that exercise is of value in promoting 
the circulation, apart from its effect upon the heart. 
When a muscle contracts, it squeezes the veins and the 
lymphatic vessels in its substance and its vicinity, and 
forces their contents onwards. It also aids the move- 
ment of the fluids of the tissues generally lying outside 
the actual vessels of the circulation. 

The influence of exercise upon the lungs is of great 
value in promoting their own health, and also, for 
Exercise instance, the health of such an organ as 
and fresh the liver, which is gently, rhythmically, but 
air effectively squeezed in the course of deep 

breathing. When at rest we take only very shallow 
breaths, thus in all probability exposing certain parts 
of our lungs to various kinds of attacks by microbes, 
to which they are laid open by lack of movement and 
stagnant circulation. In persuading us to breathe 
deeply, exercise has a value far greater than any that 
can be referred to the muscles exercised themselves. 
One of the best and most natural exercises in the world, 
from this point of view, is singing, which may be 
heartily commended to all who fear consumption or are 
liable to bronchitis, or, indeed, any disorder of the res- 
piratory system. Singing involves, of course, breath- 
ing exercise, and deep breathing as such is beyond a 
doubt the most valuable of all exercises that can be 
named. We may even go further, and say that other 
forms of exercise may well be valued — so far as the 
body is concerned — in exact proportion as they pro- 
mote deep and unfettered breathing. This best of all 
exercises may not promote muscular strength nor in- 
crease the circumference of the limbs, but it makes 
directly for the health of the heart, lungs, liver, and 
abdominal organs in general, and thereby greatly 
serves the brain. The only rational defence on our 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 91 

principles for most of the systems of exercise in vogue, 
is that though they are aimed at, let us say, the 
aggrandisement of the biceps, which matters nothing 
at all for man, whatever it may be worth for the 
hippopotamus, they do incidentally promote deep 
breathing, with all its beneficent consequences. 

Now it has to be observed that deep breathing is 
of very little value unless it be the breathing of pure 
air. Hence one must protest as vigorously as possible 
against all the rituals of the cult of muscle which 
keep any one indoors. If you have to choose between 
exercise in the ordinary indoor atmosphere and lying 
supine in the open air, you will do well to choose the 
latter. Every indoor gymnasium, every system of de- 
velopers and exercisers, is to be condemned if it keeps 
people indoors. There does not begin to be any com- 
parison on the score of health between the most 
elaborate and carefully thought-out system of indoor 
exercise, however complex the apparatus and certifi- 
cated the teachers, and the most informal stroll or 
scamper out of doors. I do wish to insist upon this 
point. In all large cities nowadays there are to be 
found people of both sexes who devote some portion 
of the day to exercise — not because they particularly 
enjoy it, but for the sake of health. To this end they 
go indoors when they might be out of doors. Boys 
and young men are encouraged to measure their prog- 
ress and profit by the size of their muscles, and the 
teachers publish photographs showing the marvellous 
development of the muscles of the shoulder girdle or 
the upper arm under this or that system. But nothing 
at all has been accomplished when these muscles have 
been developed to their maximum size. Much less than 
nothing has been accomplished if their owner, whilst 
developing them, has been breathing the ordinary air 
of an indoor apartment when he might have been out 
of doors. 



92 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

Any one who will consider for a moment the natural 
constitution of man and the principles of natural edu- 
Regarding cation, must agree that the deplorable 
dumb-bells thing called a dumb-bell offers an exquisite 
parody of what exercise should really be. The cat, 
as she exercises her kittens along the lines of their 
natural proclivities and needs, never telling them that 
this is exercise for the sake of exercise, and certainly 
prepared, if she could, to turn up her nose at any arti- 
ficial implement we might offer her — should be our 
model in this respect. It may be imagined that some 
unfortunate girl, brought up on early Victorian lines, 
having never before been permitted to wear comfortable 
garments, or to stretch her arms, would welcome and 
enjoy the use of dumb-bells when first introduced to 
them. But any one who has had a natural childhood 
and who has been taught to play, and who has taken 
his or her exercise naturally and incidentally in the 
course of pursuing some mental interest — any such 
person may be excused for thinking that a pair of 
dumb-bells should be deposited in our museums as indi- 
cations of what was understood by exercise, even as 
late as the earlier years of the twentieth century. All 
exercise for the sake of exercise is a mistake — or, at 
any rate, a second best. You may do your mind, and 
body too, more harm by sheer boredom than you may 
gain good from the exercise you go through. The 
dumb-bell symbolises the fact that the most elementary 
and obvious truths of psychology are still unrecognised, 
though the play and games of every natural child — 
if you object to be instructed by kittens — should be 
perfectly sufficient to teach us what indeed nature 
taught us ages ago, if only we would listen to her. 

Half a century ago, in discussing physical education, 
Herbert Spencer — to whom the girl of the present day 
owes a debt of which she is wholly unaware — uttered 
a forcible protest against the fashion in which exercise 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 93 

was parodied by those who controlled the school-girls 
of the time. In five months he never heard a shout or 
a laugh proceed from a girls' school only a few yards 
distant from his house. Once in that period he saw 
a girl chase another round the garden. Then in gen- 
eral criticism he goes on to point out that, latterly, 
"The natural spontaneous exercise having been for- 
bidden, and the bad consequences of no exercise having 
become conspicuous, there has been adopted a system of 
factitious exercise — gymnastics. That this is better 
than nothing, we admit; but that it is an adequate 
substitute for play we deny. . . . The common 
assumption that, so long as the amount of bodily action 
is the same, it matters not whether it be pleasurable or 
otherwise, is a grave mistake. . . . The truth is 
that happiness is the most powerful of tonics. 
Hence the intrinsic superiority of play to gymnastics. 
The extreme interest felt by children in their games, 
and the riotous glee with which they carry on their 
rougher frolics, are of as much importance as the ac- 
companying exertion. And as not supplying these 
mental stimuli, gymnastics must be radically defective." 

"Granting then, as we do, that formal exercises of 
the limbs are better than nothing — granting, further, 
that they may be used with advantage as supple- 
mentary aids, we yet contend that they can never serve 
in place of the exercises prompted by nature. For 
girls, as well as boys, the sportive activities to which 
the instincts impel are essential to bodily welfare. 
Whoever forbids them, forbids the divinely appointed 
means to physical development." 

Spencer is, as usual, profoundly right, and con- 
sidering the modern cult of muscle, his argument is 
perhaps in some ways more needed now than it was in 
the fifties of last century. Supremely important is 
the argument based upon our emotional attitude to- 
wards exercise. Happiness is, of course, incomparably 



94 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the best tonic, better even than sunlight. Many 
wretched patients are condemned by their doctors to 
take exercise in forms which they do not enjoy. Such 
exercise does them more harm than good. Nothing can ; 
be more pitiable than to have an allotted span which 
you must cover, and to count the yards as you walk 
until the thing can be done with. The exercise that 
does you good is that which you are wholly unaware 
of. Go for a walk with the right companion, and . 
though you do not even know that you are walking, you } 
benefit both in mind and body. Similarly with the 
cricketer. As he "steals" a run he is not considering t 
that this is twenty yards covered from crease to crease ; 
he is playing a game. All natural forms of exercise : 
involve enjoyment, and are themselves incidental and ,- 
subsidiary advantages involved in that enjoyment. 

This is one of the great advantages of golf for the 
middle-aged and elderly. It is not merely that the golf 
tempts you out when you would otherwise stay at i 
home. Even if you walked just as far for the sake of 
the exercise, but without an interest, you would not 
benefit to anything like the same extent. It is the i 
enjoyment, the excitement of the game, that benefits 
you most, the fresh air next, perhaps, and the exercise 
last. These remarks are not to be taken as involving 
any commendation of golf for younger people, for 
whom it has a relative defect that must be referred to. 

For observe that play is superior to all artificial 
exercise, not only in the enjoyment involved, but also 
Exercise * n that ^ nas respect to the nervous sys- 
andplay tern. With a dumb-bell you simply lift so 
much matter, so many times, through such and such a 
distance, and the action is upon the muscles involved. 
But in a game you exercise what are immeasurably 
more important than your muscles, your senses — espe- 
cially those of touch and sight. Thus the game has 
the advantage dependent upon the fact that the brain 






THE NEED OF EXERCISE 95 

is the man, and not the muscles. Not only does the 
s^ame exercise the senses, but it exercises the motor 
nervous apparatus. The value of the purposeful move- 
ment made in a game is of a wholly different order 
from that of a not dissimilar movement which may 
exercise just the same muscles ; for it involves the train- 
ing of the neuro-muscular apparatus as an instrument 
of the will. The exercise is merely one of the inci- 
dental advantages. 

Play, then, or at least what we enjoy for itself, is 
the best exercise. If you actively enjoy swinging 
dumb-bells, well and good, though it is a pity that you 
do not prefer something which exercises your senses. 
The best play has certain requirements. It must be 
in the open air. It is practically certain to be with 
a ball. Of such games there are two kinds — those in 
which you hit a moving ball, such as cricket, and 
hockey, and tennis, and those in which you hit a sta- 
tionary one, such as golf and croquet. Both kinds 
exercise the senses, but the former have the great 
advantage of introducing the question of time, and 
exercising the senses in a much more complete and 
valuable fashion. There is no reason in the world why 
a man who looks after himself should not play such a 
game as tennis in his fifties. I almost think it is a 
pity that a boy or youth should play golf when other 
games will give him everything that this does, and, in 
addition, that quickness and accuracy of co-ordinated 
response which can be so easily learnt in youth, but 
with great difficulty, if at all, in later life. 

Most important, however, is the question of enjoy- 
ment, which is absolutely cardinal. You are out to 
exercise the whole man, not merely your muscles. 
Every pleasure raises the tide of life, and it is the 
enjoyment of the game, far more than the mere exer- 
cise, that is hygienic. 

We treat our subject under various heads, but the 



96 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

body is a whole. Such questions as those of clothes 
Exercise food, and exercise cannot be properly dis- 
and food cussed without relation to each other. £ 
motor-car can only run so many miles on a gallon ol 
petrol. The more exercise you take, the more fooc 
you require. Thus, an amount of food which consti- 
tutes the grossest over-eating in the case of a seden- 
tary man may be only just adequate for one who takes 
much exercise, whether at work or play. The questior 
is simply one of fuel. Unfortunately we are not sc 
constituted that the man who takes an excess of fuel 
for its own sake, finds himself impelled to exercise. L 
excessive food acted as a stimulus to exercise, there 
would be, in effect, no such thing as over-eating. Or 
the contrary, over-eating disinclines us for exercise' 
both by over-loading the machine with fat, and by 
poisoning the nervous system with waste products. Ir 
olden times the pleasures of the table were compensatec 
for in advance by the pleasures of the chase. Now oui 
food is obtained for us, and we run the risk to which sc 
many succumb. However, if the reader, as is quite 
possible, does actually find it difficult to reduce his diet 
he can protect himself if he will take proportionate!} 
more exercise. The systematic use of dumb-bells maj 
offer as uninviting a prospect as the suppression oi 
favourite dishes, but let the reader find an outdooi 
game that will amuse him. 

If you can find an exercise that really engrosses 
your attention, whether because of the skill it demands. 
Exercise or through the stimulus of competition, 
and then you will certainly obtain real recre- 

recreation ation. Play has no more valuable attribute 
than that of wholly changing the mind's occupation. 
Caring nothing about the size of biceps, I would ap- 
plaud amusing exercise on the ground that it takes the 
mind away from the struggle for existence — often bj 
substituting a mimic struggle for existence — and thu- 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 91 

directly serves the self. The exercise that does not exhil- 
arate is to be condemned. For this reason we must stop 
short of undue fatigue, though probably undue fatigue 
is not often to be feared even from almost unlimited ex- 
ercise of a thoroughly enjoyable kind, taken without any 
thought to the distance you are covering, or the like. 

When asked to recommend the best exercise, the 
doctor usually feels bound to name walking as natural, 
The best safe, and generally applicable; but the 
exercise best exercise, other things being equal, is 

that which you most enjoy. If you find that walking 
exhilarates you, well and good. It is, however, a form 
of cruelty, to my mind, to prescribe walks, often soli- 
tary, for people who take no interest in them. Such 
walks may do more harm than good. It is, perhaps, 
possible to name the best exercise on the assumption 
that man is a machine, but on any other assumption 
we must find out in the individual case what is en- 
joyed. On the other hand, those exercises are bad 
which take you out of the open air. Those are bad 
which require muscular exertion such as interferes with 
breathing; of these weight-lifting is typical. Those 
may quite well be ignored, except for the professional 
artist's model, which boast that they produce a uniform 
development of all the muscles of body. Probably 
the exercise which best answers to this description is 
swimming, and swimming is, of course, to be com- 
mended, but not for this reason. Those exercises are 
bad in which you are stimulated to put in "the last 
ounce." Here, again, is another argument in favour 
of games, as against even such comparatively natural 
forms of exercise as running races. You may play a 
game for all you are worth, but if it is a high order 
of game, this does not involve putting in "the last 
ounce." On the contrary, you are probably "giving 
runs away" when you bowl as fast as you can. But in 
the more primitive forms of athletic contest, such as 



98 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

running races, the purely physical element is upper- 
most, and you may be tempted to exertion of unim- 
portant muscles, which will gravely injure your heart, 
the most important muscle you possess. And if other 
kinds of races are to be questioned, especially for the 
young, swimming races are notably to be criticised 
on account of the very great exertion involved under 
conditions which are not natural, however excellent 
within limits. 

There are plenty of cases on record of men and 
women who live to great ages, in excellent health, some- 
Is systematic^ mcs P ro ^ ucm g wonderful products of 
exercise mind, yet who take no systematic exercise 

necessary? at a u. They prove, at the least, that BJ«] 
tematic exercise is not a necessity for every one. If 
we knew more of such cases, however, I believe we 
should find that in order to do without exercise you 
must be an extremely moderate eater. It may be ques- 
tioned whether special exercise is really indispensable 
for any one, if he will sufficiently restrict his diet. This 
is not, of course, to say that no exercise is required 
(though, for the matter of that, people will live in bed 
for decades), but I do mean that, so far as the mere 
contraction of muscles is concerned, the ordinary 
amount of exercise which the life of the most sedentary 
man affords is perfectly compatible with health if he 
will eat lightly enough. The value of recreation is 
another matter altogether. But such a man may find, 
let us say, a game of chess his best recreator — far bet- 
ter than a walk which gives him no pleasure. 

In a word, we have to distinguish between mind and 
body in this matter of exercise. In so far as we are 
motor-cars, something will go wrong if we force in fuel 
without consuming it. The engine, however, can be 
kept in good running order with a minimum of use if 
we avoid over-feeding and over-lubrication. So far as 
man is a mind, however, and is largely compelled to 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 99 

levote his attention to things which do not satisfy him 
n themselves, but afford him a means of life, he re- 
hires abundant recreation in the form of occupations 
rhich are ends in themselves, if he is to preserve his 
nental health. In so far as exercise serves this end, 
t is a necessity for all, except the artist or any other 
ortunate person whose work and play are one. But 
n such cases it is not the muscular contraction that 
natters, but the mental interest. This is not to say a 
rord against gjmmastics — excellent for those who like 
hem. It is merely to point out that it is the liking 
v r hich constitutes the excellence. 

There is nothing mystical or metaphysical about 
his doctrine. Every state of emotion, including mere 
nterest, far short of overpowering delight, influences 
;he whole body. Indeed, all modern psychologists are 
igreed that an emotion is a state of body, whether or 
lot it be anything more. Thus the pleasure we get 
>ut of games has its physical relations in activity of 
;he glandular tissues of the body upon which its health 
lepends, though we have never heard the names of most 
)f them. This is why pleasure is good for us — that it 
ictually means the promotion of our bodily chemistry, 
;he quicker elaboration of the substances that make for 
ife, and the quicker destruction and removal of waste 
products. If a man can effect all these ends wholly 
without exercise, as many bedridden people do, for dec- 
ides on end, often with minds of the greatest activity 
md serenity — then, plainly, we must take these facts 
nto account when we estimate the importance of ex- 
:rcise. Only remember, if you will not exercise, neither 
nust you eat — beyond a surprisingly small amount. 

There is nothing here to be said about dumb-bells 
)r Indian clubs or methods of tying yourself to your 
iedroom door with elastic ropes, or — the Special 
leight of absurdity — exercises to be used exercises 
sitting in a chair. The man to be respected, so far as 



100 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

these are concerned, is he who buys the apparatus, 
uses it for a week, and then becomes tired of it. Of 
course he should become tired of it. He is a man, not 
a machine. 

But there are two special forms of exercise which 
may be noted, though no one can note their results in 
muscular bulk. One of these is breathing exercise. 
The singer has the great advantage of taking this 
incidentally. Those who do not sing will do well to 
take it purposely. It is absolutely cardinal that the 
air breathed be fresh. Five minutes of deliberate deep 
breathing at the open window is a good discipline for 
the beginning of the day. It involves practising the 
elasticity of all parts of the lungs and preventing stag- 
nation of the blood in them. By means of the dia- 
phragm it involves a rhythmical squeezing of the liver 
almost as a hand squeezes a sponge. This makes for 
health of digestion and opposes constipation. 

The other form of special exercise is abdominal exer- 
cise, with particular reference to constipation again. 
Walking, of course, involves abdominal exercise, but the 
subject of constipation will do well to perform such 
movements as twisting his trunk round in either direc- 
tion without moving the feet, lying on the ground and 
raising the head and trunk, and also the deliberate 
indrawing of the abdomen by direct contraction of the 
abdominal muscles. This effects a very thorough mas- 
sage and stimulation of the stomach and bowel, and is 
better than artificial massage by means of the hand. 
It is more effective, more even, and more natural. 
Doubtless it is less trouble to swallow a pill, but abdom- 
inal exercise is vastly better. 

Exercise is of course a form of education, and, as 
Spencer says, "to prepare us for complete living is 
. the function which education has to dis- 
charge." You have to ask again whether 
you are a body or a soul. If you are only a body, then 



THE NEED OF EXERCISE 101 

you must devote practically the whole of your waking 
day to keeping yourself in the best possible physical 
condition ; if you are more than a body, however, this 
is not worth while. You require merely such a physical 
condition as best serves the mind. We must remember, 
what is so constantly forgotten, that vitality and mus- 
cularity are not one and the same thing. The female 
organism has greater vitality in general. Women live 
longer, on the average, they can survive far greater 
loss of blood than men, and in general their chances 
of recovery from infectious disease are always higher. 
These are conclusive proofs of superior vitality in a 
much less muscular organism. Many "strong men" are 
really weak. The upkeep of their muscles involves so 
great a drain upon their vital resources that the influ- 
enza or pneumonia from which a weak woman would 
recover will kill them. They have resistance to mechan- 
ical pressure, since that is what muscles give, but they 
have not that vital resistance which is everything for 
the body even considered as a machine, since even as 
such it is not a mechanical but a bio-chemical machine. 
But it is more even than that, and, as the devotees of 
Christian Science have proved, if we had sense enough 
to learn from them, our greatest source of resistance 
and vitality is the mind. It is therefore by the effect 
upon the mind that all exercise must, in the last resort, 
be judged. 



102 VIII 

THE NEED OF SLEEP 

The question of sleep is one of radical importance, 
far too much neglected in the present welter of hygienic 
The imDor controversy. Every one knows, practically, 
tance of how important it is, but it does not lend 

sleep itself to controversy, nor to the tempera- 

ment of the fanatic or faddist, and it will never, I sup- 
pose, be discussed as the food question is discussed. 
Yet whilst the most prominent fact about dietetics is the 
amazing adaptability of the human constitution to 
almost any dietary scheme that can be named, and 
whilst mere belief in a diet, or the liking for it, may go 
far to make it valuable, thus rendering half our con- 
troversies foolish — the need of sleep is imperative, and 
as rigid, almost, as the need for air. Further, whilst 
it is impossible to distinguish between the man who is 
taking the best possible diet, if such there be, and his 
neighbour who is taking the second best or tenth best, 
no one can afford to have the second best kind of Bleep! 
Failure in this need of sleep strikes at the very root 
of all our well-being — physical, intellectual, and moral. 
It saps the source of that energy which makes so 
greatly for happiness and for usefulness ; it interferes 
with the power of attention, and makes for indigestion 
and worry — its own potent causes. In acute illness, 
the question of sleep frequently means the difference 
between life and death. What sleep is no one knows. 
The nature of the causes which produce it no one knows. 
The problem of unconsciousness is probably as insoluble 
as the problem of consciousness itself, of which it is 
only the obverse aspect; but for practical purposes 
we know a great deal about sleep, and there is no more 
certain hygienic fact than its importance as an essen- 
tial condition of all health. 

The great fact of human adaptation obtains here in 
some degree. We have seen that it partly obtains even 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 103 

in the case of breathing foul air, to which the habitual 
slum-dweller appears to oppose some anti-toxin which 
he has learnt to make. But apart from varying need 
at various ages — a variation probably more apparent 
than real — our possibilities of adaptation do not apply, 
I believe, to the actual amount of sleep requisite, and 
probably the same is true of the great apparent vari- 
ations in the requirements of different people. Of 
course, so long as we imagine that sleep can be measured 
by the clock — as we think that age can be measured 
by our planet's revolutions round the sun — so long we 
shall have to believe that one man needs only four 
hours' sleep and another ten ; or that one and the same 
man, who formerly seemed to require nine hours' sleep, 
can in time habituate himself to health with six. If, 
however, as I shall try to show, these measurements 
of sleep are just about as relevant as the valuation of 
a symphony in terms of its numbers of bars, we may 
suspect that if we really could measure sleep (a feat 
which I believe can be performed only indirectly by ob- 
serving its consequences), the variations of need 
between different people or in the same man at different 
times would be found surprisingly small. It would, 
indeed, be not a bad working hypothesis to assume that 
there is a certain quantity of sleep which, for health, 
given a certain standard of work, we must all obtain, 
though it is a matter of wholly secondary importance 
whether we take this quantity quickly or slowly. To 
this point, which involves the explosion of the popular 
fallacy regarding sleep, we must return. 

It is easy to state the chief differences in function- 
ing between sleep and waking, and we are probably 
entitled, when we have done so, to find in ^ he 
them the value of sleep. It is a state of function 
relative rest. The heart beats more slowly, oi slee P 
partly because the whole body is living more slowly, so 
that less rapid change of blood is required, and partly 



104 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

because the body is horizontal, and the brain at rela- 
tive rest, so that the chief cardiac problem of the day- 
time is suspended — the sending of sufficient arterial 
blood upwards against the earth's gravitation, towards 
the active brain. The breathing, also, is slower. There 
is thus, perhaps, a somewhat higher proportion of car- 
bonic acid in the blood. If the lungs and air-passages 
be not in perfect health, the effect of sleep upon the 
heart and lungs will show itself in the accumulation 
of secretions, so that we may cough a good deal when 
we get up. The glands of the body also work more 
slowly. Though in the lower animals, and in man when 
he approximates to the lower animal, sleep and diges- 
tion often coincide, it is best that the digestive glands, 
the stomach, and the bowel — not only as regards their 
secretions but also as regards their movements — should 
do little or no work during sleep. Digestive move- 
ments in especial are typical disturbers of sleep, and 
greatl}' interfere with its depth. The bowel should wake 
in the morning under the stimulus of breakfast, and 
should then be given its opportunity of showing that it 
has awakened. The kidneys also, when healthy, rest 
during the night. The amount of their secretion dur- 
ing the night should be a mere fraction of that in the 
day-time, and a disturbance of this rule — only too 
obvious in its results — demands attention. The volun- 
tary muscles, of course, rest during sleep. 

The brain, also — and pre-eminently — is in a state of 
relative rest during sleep. Wholly at rest it can never 
be. The speck of nervous matter, for instance, which 
initiates the act of breathing, and is situate in the low- 
est part of the brain — the punctual vitcde, or vital 
point, as the older physiologists called it — must con- 
tinue to work, though less vigorously. Its rest, like 
the heart's rest, is really in the intervals of a very rapid 
rhythm which persists continuously from the cradle to 
the grave — indeed, in the case of the heart, from long 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 105 

before the cradle. Somewhat higher areas of the brain, 
concerned with motion and sensation, rest much more 
completely. The only voluntary muscles in action are 
those of respiration. Though external pressure is still 
present, its stimuli should not reach the centres for 
the sense of touch. The hearing, seeing, smelling, and 
tasting centres are at absolute rest. So also, and this 
is most important, should be the brain centres for what 
may be called our internal sensations of touch, those 
proceeding from movements of the stomach and bowel. 
If these centres be, however, disturbed, they are capable 
of arousing the highest areas of the brain, either 
wholly, so that we wake, or in part, so that we dream. 
The commonest cause of insomnia is indigestion, and 
the two states are, indeed, very rarely dissociated. 
Hence, it should be criminal to treat insomnia with 
hypnotics whilst leaving ignored what is its very nearly 
invariable cause. 

Lastly, in healthy sleep the highest parts of the 
brain are at complete rest. It matters not in the least 
to us here upon what physical or physico-chemical 
state this rest depends, except merely that if it is to 
depend upon any chemicals they should be compounds 
made by the body itself for hypnotic purposes; and 
that if an artificial hypnotic must be used, it should be 
as nearly as possible identical with the natural hyp- 
notics. It is, of course, in this condition of the highest 
part of the brain that sleep differs from the most com- 
plete waking rest. 

It may appear sufficient to indicate the foregoing 
facts of sleep in order to explain its value, and they 
do explain its value, no doubt, in great measure, if 
not wholly, so far as the body as distinguished from 
the brain is concerned. Thus if we could insure a right 
state of consciousness, there is little doubt that com- 
plete physical rest would do for us almost as much 
as sleep does. The sleepless man, if he can discipline 



106 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

his mind, may profit by a night's rest in surprising 
measure; and it has been recommended, quite rightly 
no doubt — though it is a counsel of perfection — that 
the bad sleeper should compose himself, obtain physical 
rest and be grateful for that ; if he avoids worry and 
fretting and frantic efforts to obtain sleep by storm, 
he will fare almost as well as if he had sleep. I am 
sure there is a great deal of truth in this. Given phys- 
ical rest and a perfectly placid contented state of 
mind, w T ho can say how little actual unconsciousness 
would be compatible with health? But of course the 
truth is that you require to be a very exceptional per- 
son in order to obtain such a state as has been described. 
When we fail to sleep we worry, and worry being an 
emotional state is an active state of the body, the 
absolute negation of even physical rest, though the 
voluntary muscles may be composed enough. For the 
practical purposes, then, of ninety-nine men out of 
a hundred, it is necessary to sleep even in order to 
obtain mere physical rest, internal as well as external, 
and the true value of sleep, as distinguished from any- 
thing short of it is, I believe, simply this : that for 
nearly every one it is the necessary condition of real, 
as distinguished from apparent, physical rest — rest not 
merely of limbs but of internal chemistry, rest in the 
laboratories of life. 

For it must be remembered that the vital processes 
themselves, so far as their destructive and expending 
aspect is concerned, are in partial abeyance during 
sleep. When we sleep we are saving energy. This, 
of course, is as good as to take in new energy, and the 
French proverb is undoubtedly right, "Qui dort dine." 
This, at bottom, is the value of physical rest, and 
therefore for practical purposes of sleep ; since for 
most men, as we have seen, it is necessary to be actually 
asleep in order to obtain real physical rest. When 
we sleep, we cease to spend and destroy; we save 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 107 

and construct. Think of sleep as the constructive 
period or re-constructive period. Sleep does for the 
whole body what the heart does for itself between 
its beats — absorbs, assimilates, and builds up new 
material. 

We are discussing here the adult man and woman 
in whom physical growth has ceased. (In the human 
being mental growth never ceases, at least sleep 
so long as the soul is alive, but of course and growth 
the soul may die at any time, as we shall see in a later 
chapter.) But I cannot refrain from taking the op- 
portunity to point out that, as our principles will show, 
sleep is, in childhood, a period of growth and develop- 
ment. If one limits one's adjectives in trying to ex- 
press the importance of sleep for the adult, it is only 
because one should have further verbal resources in 
order to express its importance to the child. Growth 
and development are the marks of childhood, and it is 
in the sleeping child that they proceed. Our treatment 
of childhood in respect of sleep is at present only too 
often scandalous, cruel, and disastrous. This is in the 
nature of a digression in the present volume, and I can 
only say a word or two. But we know for certain that 
in the majority of even the public schools of England, 
where no money is lacking, the parents' fees do not 
suffice to buy sufficient sleep for their boys. We prac- 
tise, by proxy, a wicked asceticism in this respect. The 
boys are turned out of bed often after only eight or 
eight and a half hours' sleep, insufficient for either boy 
or girl, and then, as like as not, they are expected to do 
some brain-work before breakfast. This whole prac- 
tice is quite imbecile — if, indeed, that adjective should 
not be reserved for most of its products. The public 
school boy is not so abused in America, by the way. 
As regards the children of the poor, from whom in the 
long run our race is recruited, the question of sleep is 
still more urgent. A majority of them are terribly 



108 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

maltreated in this respect — victims of great irregu- 
larity and all kinds of noise and disturbance. We 
cannot say what the mental and physical average of 
our race is really capable of being until we devote far 
more attention than any hitherto to the question of 
sleep in childhood. It is not only growth of limb but 
also growth and development of brain that occurs 
during the constructive period of sleep. To eat is 
only to take in, but to sleep is to build. 

But to return to the adult, let us here note at once 
how this matter of sleep bears upon the principles 
Sleep and °f the new asceticism. For most of us, 
asceticism whether we can afford it monetarily or not, 
a warning against physical indulgences is necessary so 
far as all our senses are concerned, and not least those 
which are not included amongst the orthodox five, such 
as the sense of hunger. Where, however, gratification 
of the senses is not involved, we avoid physical indul- 
gence of the most desirable kind, such as indulgence 
in fresh air. Similarly, we avoid indulgence in sleep. 
Most of us are in this respect actual ascetics — not, how- 
ever, from any ascetic motive. If the results are bad, 
as they are, we cannot claim any credit on the score 
of our intentions. Now, if we want to estimate the 
effects of this kind of asceticism, we have the old asceti- 
cism to guide us. The deprivation of sleep was of 
course, one of its methods, usually aggravated by 
fasting. The ill effect of the fasting would in part 
have been compensated for by sleep. But to practise 
vigils and fasting too was, of course, to burn the candle 
at both ends ; to increase the physiological expenditure 
and diminish the income. And we know that the results 
were disastrous, most copious, perhaps, being all kinds 
of hallucinations. In those days hallucinations were 
mostly visual, the eyes being the most over-used organs 
of sense. In these days, as we shall see later, the ears 
are often over-worked, and hallucinations of hearing 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 109 

are probably of unprecedented frequency to-day in 
association with insanity and insomnia. 

Now the new asceticism takes the effect upon the 
mind as its criterion, and though the value of sleep 
is, physiologically, to be found in the physical repose 
it effects, yet it certainly does not follow that sleep 
is merely good for the body. It is good for the mind 
because it is good for the body. On these grounds, 
then, the new asceticism must utterly condemn and 
repudiate the deprivation of sleep, and must demand 
the practice of a higher and subtler asceticism which 
will discipline us to resist the temptation to cut down 
our sleep. It is bad enough that in the modern world 
so much disaster should be wrought amongst children, 
and adults too, because of deprivation of sleep which 
the subject cannot avoid, without having added to it 
all the sum of disaster due to voluntary and deliberate 
deprivation of sleep. Many of us require to discipline 
ourselves, to abbreviate our bridge and balls and other 
dissipations, in order to gain more sleep. Never was 
a greater untruth more wittily expressed than in the 
couplet — 

"The best of all ways to lengthen your days 
Is to steal a few hours from the night." 

The truth is that our common defiance of the needs 
of sleep, and our irregularity in taking it, very com- 
monly result in insomnia, which we seek to relieve by 
dubious methods ; until, at last, the sleep which we for- 
merly refused is now refused us, mind and body paying 
the penalty. Of all the errors of the old asceticism, 
there was none more profound and more vicious in its 
results than the deprival of sleep. This practice on 
ascetic grounds prevails only in our cruel treatment 
of school children, and, on economic grounds — save the 
mark — in that of many young children in the north 
of England, who are daily awakened by the "knocker 



110 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

up" between 4.45 and 5.30 a.m. with results for which 
they and the nation pay. As regards ourselves, the 
ascetic principle is abandoned in this respect, but foi 
our own immediate pleasure we act as if it were main- 
tained. There does not seem to be any way of checking 
this course except by trying as often as possible to 
warn the public against its ultimate consequences. 

And now, before we proceed to lay down any rules, 
and, least of all, any figures, as to the need of sleep. 
The equality ^ * s necessary to repudiate one of the most 
of sleep widely credited of all delusions — that all 

sleep is one and the same, and that it can therefore 
be measured by the clock. If possible, we must cease 
to believe that the line of demarcation between sleej 
and the waking state is as absolute and rigid as it 
appears. In reality there is an infinite number oi 
gradations between the state of intense consciousness, 
at the one extreme, and at the other extreme, after 
passing through many stages of more or less normal 
sleep, the state of coma, in which perhaps even a bright 
light thrown into the eye will fail to rouse the patient, 

Let us remember that even the waking state has 
many gradations. Thoreau wonders whether, if we 
were to meet a man who was fully awake, we should 
dare to look him in the face. There is also the state 
of day-dreaming, which approximates to sleep in some 
ways — at any rate, to that very imperfect sleep which 
is accompanied by relatively coherent dreams. 

What may be called normal sleep similarly varies 
in depth, and one hour of the best quality of sleep 
is worth many hours of the worst. Indeed there is, oi 
course, a kind of sleep which does not refresh at all, 
but the rather exhausts us. Yet it is curious how wc 
Sleep and judge others and ourselves in this respect, 
dreams as if laziness and strenuousnes*. good for- 

tune and bad fortune, could be measured by the clock. 
The question "How long did you sleep last night?" 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 111 

is not worth asking, unless, indeed, you want to infer 
from your friend's waking state what kind of sleep 
he had. Just as people may be more or less wide-awake, 
so they may be more or less narrowly or deeply asleep ; 
and the question of depth is far more important than 
that of duration. 

This, indeed, is where dreams, in these days, find 
their practical interest and importance. This is where 
they may still be capable of predicting the future. The 
man who habitually has coherent dreams, especially 
if these be repeated, may regard them as somewhat 
ominous, whatever their subject. Six hours of dream- 
less sleep will probably suffice for any adult if he can 
obtain them. By no other means can the quality of 
sleep be so readily measured as by dreaming or its 
absence. Best of all is to have no dreams. Some 
authorities assert that every one dreams, but that many 
dreams are not remembered. If this be so, then best 
of all is to have no remembered dreams. Next best is 
to have few, inoffensive, and incoherent dreams. Less 
good is it to have definite and well-remembered dreams. 
It is probably correct to say, I fancy, that the measure 
of coherence of a dream depends upon the number of 
brain areas that were in active association during 
its occurrence. Thus the more coherent your dream, 
the more of your brain was awake, so to say. Still 
worse is it to have dreams of the nightmare kind, espe- 
cially if they recur through the night. The nightmare 
quality doubtless depends upon disturbance in the ab- 
domen or the neighborhood of the heart, and means 
that so much more of the body has been in a state of 
unrest. In general, then, the fewer, the less memorable, 
the less coherent, and the less offensive are the dreams, 
the deeper and more valuable is the sleep. The sound 
and deep sleeper, then, sleeps quickly, and may obtain 
more sleep every night than his neighbour who is more 
or less unconscious twice as long a time. If we use 



112 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINE 

such a metaphor as levels of consciousness, we may be 
able to state a theory of these facts. Thus in the 
lethargic people who "when fully awake can as 
about three ideas per hour at their best, the higher 
levels are apparently never quite wide-awake; in the 
sufferer from nightmare — who when awal 
very bright — the higher lev obtain 

real rest, and their partial action involves the | 
and disordered consciousness which afflicts his night- 
hours." 

It may be added that th< re is a normal variation 
through the night in the depth of sleep, as h 
proved by many experiments mad.- by measurii 
intensity of the stimulus required to wak< 
at various stages. 1' has been shown that tip 
hours of sleep arc the most valuabl . ( I 
"beauty sleep" is therefore justified. It is the « u-lier 
hours of sleep which, because they are the d< 

especially make for health and beauty. As tin- morning 
hours advance the sleep DOimallj Mower, 

until at lasi we wake, many people I 
mediate stage of COnscic ;> nor wak- 

ing, during which BOme DSU • hrful tales to 

themselves — tales which) in I f a genius like 

Robert Louis Stevenson, can ! Used in the dav- 

time. I wish to insist that normally — curi 

the statement may appear— the | f waking is 

Normal no * »" cr(, ly ■ gradual one, hut hi also a 
waking natural one, determined by internal c 

The universal method of civilisation, <>f course, i- to 

assume that people have to hi' awakened from without. 

The sequence is started by means of an alarm clock, 

and its victim goes about and victimises other-. It is 

doubtless useless to propose that adu 

mitted to have their sleep out. 

lutely certain that it is a wicked thil 

It is beyond doubt an unpardonable crin for I 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 113 

the most rare and special and peculiar reasons, to wake 
t baby or an invalid. The theory of drugging reaches 
no point so outrageous as when an uninstructed nurse 
wakes a patient whose sleep is curing him, in order to 
administer a dose of some poison or other. In general) 
though there are of course exceptions I am not re- 
ferring to the sleep of laudanum poisoning) nor even to 
I he sleep of him w ho has dined loo well- but in genera] 
q sleeping person ought to sleep. In health at least 

he will wake when he is ready to do BO, and in all ordi- 
nary cases of disease, as in childhood and infancy, this 
principle is true and all iin port an t . Hut it depends 

upon the remarkable assumption) you will observe. 

I hat, despite almost universal practice, we may be nor- 
mally and naturally awakened from within. No one 

knows at all the nature of the physical state which Is 
involved in sleep, but it IS a thousand times probable 

thai whatever it be, it is naturally terminated when the 

need for it has been met. Observe that when we have 

fiad our Avc\) sleep, our sleep normally becomes shal- 
lower and shallower. 

Recent inquiry has shown that the experience of so 
uany of us is apparently normal, and that, even after 
ibvious waking, we require a few hours before we be- 

onie as awake as we may be. Most people are not 

'I the "lop i^' their form" in the early morning; it 

g SOmewhal later in the day that they become fully 

awake, and then, after a time, sleepy again. There is 

luis a daily rhythm which, though it appears to con- 

■ist of two abruptly marked phases, is really contin- 
uous. How smooth and continuous we can probably 
ml gueSS Unless We adopt the practice of going to bed 

vhen we begin to feel Bleepy ami allowing ourselves to 

vaken spontaneously. 

The interesting phenomenon known as the breakfast 

temper is much less familiar now than it used to be. 

rhe symptoms need scarcely be described — a general 



114 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

feeling of irritation and annoyance, a lack of any de- 
light at the spectacle of one's family, a tendency to 
The break- growl when asked to pass things at table, 
fast temper and so forth. The comparative disappear- 
ance of this disorder may be attributed to two causes. 
One, undoubtedly, is the opening of the bedroom win- 
dow. Other things being equal, you will be more 
cheery in the morning if you have not been, so to say, 
stewing in your own juice all night. It is the difference 
between an unpoisoned and a poisoned brain. This is 
one of the minor advantages of opening the bedroom 
window, but it is worth mentioning. Another reason 
why the breakfast temper is disappearing, is that some 
allowance is being gradually made for the natural facts 
cf sleep. When the head of the house determined 
the breakfast hour — probably determined for him by 
the head of his business house — he forgot that young 
people need more sleep than old, and his own tendency 
to bad temper, in part determined by the fact just 
noted, that one takes some time to wake up completely, 
was aggravated by the fact that his children were 
habitually late for breakfast, each of them, of course, 
having had his or her own sleep artificially terminated. 
Such a congeries of conditions could scarcely make for 
a happy breakfast-table. We have not yet reached the 
stage at which young people are fairly treated as 
regards sleep, but at least there is a greater measure 
of individual independence as regards the breakfast 
hour. Many will deplore this, attaching great value 
to eating together as a family bond. This theory of 
the stomach, however, as the family tie is open to criti- 
cism, and as yielding to no one in respect for the family, 
I may suggest that its interests are better served by 
the abolition of a custom which commonly began the 
day by setting its members at loggerheads with each 
other. 

There are, indeed, three distinct reasons why we 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 115 

should throw off the tyranny of the clock in this matter. 
First, there is the fact that the clock can- Sleep and 
not measure the quantity of sleep, quantity the clock 
being here a question of quality. Second, there is the 
j fact that the clock commonly terminates our sleep, 
though our physical and mental health and temper 
would be vastly better if we were allowed to terminate 
| it for ourselves. Thirdly, the tyranny of the clock is 
injurious to the individual and the family at the end 
of the day as well as at the beginning. What I mean 
by this is simply that the natural inclination for sleep, 
and not the clock, should be the natural indication for 
sleep. It is a cruel thing, and will react injuriously 
I upon yourself, to compel a young wife to stay up in 
J order to entertain your guests. It is no better that the 
wife should drag the husband away when he is inter- 
ested, and not ready for bed. The remedy, of course, 
is evident enough, separate bedrooms for married 
people being advisable on every ground that can be 
imagined. 

There is undoubtedly a relation between work and 
the need for sleep. The hard worker should be a pro- 
portionately deep sleeper. Muscular work Sleep and 
I might be supposed to require less sleep, the work 
j characteristic of which, as distinguished from physical 
j rest, is rest of the highest areas of the brain. We 
i know, however, that muscular fatigue is in the main 
; nervous fatigue. We know that the by-products of 
! muscular action reach the brain and exhaust it. Sleep 
i is therefore emphatically necessary for the man who 
; works with his hands. Fortunately for him, this kind 
1 of work is favourable to sleep. Few of us sleep so well 
| as the peasant who is working in the fields all day. 

The brain-worker also needs much sleep — which does 

i not necessarily mean long sleep. But the contrast 

| between the difficulty with which he obtains it, and the 

case of the hand labourer, suffices to show that man, as 



116 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

at present constituted, is better adapted for physical 
than for mental work. There is a risk involved in 
habitually sedentary mental labour, but it must be 
run. The point here to be made is that since both kinds 
of work demand sleep for recuperation, the change 
from one to the other, though it may be a recreation 
in some senses, is no substitute for sleep. There is no 
question as to the value of change of occupation, but 
this value can be over-estimated or, rather, misstated. 
We shall deal later with the special precautions useful 
for the brain- worker, merely noting here that, just as 
the mental machine requires some time for warming up 
in the morning, so it is very apt to go on working when 
its activity is no longer desired. At both ends of the 
day it is well to recognise in one's practice the gradu- 
ated nature of the natural rhythm. 

In an earlier chapter something has been said re- 
garding the ventilation of the bedroom. The bed itself 
Bed and should be single; the feather bed is out of 

bedroom the question, interfering as it does with 
personal ventilation, and the rest of the bedclothing 
should conform to the principles of clothing in gen- 
eral already discussed. There must be enough clothing 
to permit of the open window. The bed should be 
wide enough to permit of a fair amount of movement. 

He is the happy man who, like the child, does not 
woo sleep, but is captured by it, and the adoption of 
The coming conscious methods for enabling one to sleep 
of sleep is a very nearly desperate resort. "We 

can, however, lay down certain useful principles which 
will conduce to sleep. Doubtless most important of 
all — though purely mental causes cannot be far be- 
hind — is indigestion as that which must be avoided. 
The gastric apparatus is responsible for very nearly 
all our bad dreams, and for the greater number of all 
dreams. For nine sleepless persons out of ten, the first 
need is either to cure dyspepsia or to abolish a late 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 117 

meal. Doubtless there should be a clear three hours 
between anything like a heavy meal and the time of 
>leep. In the course of this interval the stomach should 
lave distributed its contents to the bowel. It need 
mrdly be said that true cerebral stimulants like tea and 
coffee — and possibly cocoa — should be avoided in the 
ater part of the day by those whose sleep is precarious. 
Alcohol is a narcotic in its essential action, but it is 
lot to be commended as a hypnotic, either for the 
poung or for the old. The experience of the highest 
mthorities, such as Sir Hermann Weber and Dr. 
jeorge Keith, 1 whose great age warrants their prac- 
;ice, is entirely opposed to the use of alcohol for in- 
somnia in the old. 

Since the mental apparatus takes some time to run 
lown or to cool down, many people find it best not to 
vork at night, vast though the advantages of the mid- 
light hour be for those who can use it with impunity. 
Many celebrated men have been night- workers. Long 
labit and obvious advantages notwithstanding, the 
practice must, however, be immediately suspended if 
md when the sleep is found to suffer. I know no ob- 
jection to reading in bed provided that one or two con- 
litions are complied with. The book must be well 
chosen. Some will sleep best after a trivial book, others 
tfter a serious one which may tire the attention. The 
'isk of fire is negligible nowadays when we read by 
electric light. The light, however, must be rightly 
placed, so that the surface of the page shall not slope 
iway from the eye. Reading in bed is often objection- 
able on this account. The book is sloped in order to 
)btain the light, and the sloping involves extra labour 
n focussing, and therefore visual fatigue. 

In order to sleep, one requires the minimum of stim- 
ili, whether from within or without, to disturb the 

1 Author of "A Plea for a Simpler Life." 



118 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

brain. Worry and thought offer examples of stimuli 
arising within ; dyspepsia, an example of another kind. 
Touch sensations often suffice to keep us awake ; the 
feet must be warm, the skin must be warm, but not too 
warm. When we are too hot in bed the flushed skin 
«Pke becomes over-sensitive, and sensations de- 

exclusion of rived from it keep us awake. In such a 
sensation case ft may expose one to infection unduly 
to lighten the bed-clothes. It is much better to get up 
and sponge the face, or even the whole body, with cold 
water, and then dry the skin. The removal of per- 
spiration removes the cause of irritation, and very 
often the process offers a hint to the brain centre which 
controls the distribution of blood. This method of 
relieving insomnia due to becoming too hot in bed is 
very constantly successful. 

Sensations of light must be excluded, of course. 
Morning insomnia is often remedied by the use of 
"photographic blinds" for the bedroom windows. The 
visual character of most dreams is quite sufficient to 
prove to the psychologist that the brain centres con- 
nected with vision have been unduly stimulated before 
they are asleep. I am not thinking so much of mere 
ocular fatigue in reading or writing, as the effect upon 
the brain centres themselves. Their congested state 
doubtless accounts for many visual dreams. We light 
our living rooms unduly. Almost the only good fea- 
ture of the modern fashionable dinner is the confining 
of the light to the table, but the drawing-room is far 
too brilliantly lit. There is no sense or reason in this 
at all, and it undoubtedly prejudices subsequent sleep. 
Where the staple interests are conversation and music, 
there is nothing in particular to see. When music is 
taken seriously, the less light there is the better. 

The question of noise in cities is becoming a press- 
ing one. We have no ear-lids. In the act of falling 
to sleep, as in the act of going under chloroform, 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 119 

the ear is hypersensitive. Ear-strain is, I am sure, at 
least as real as eye-strain, and probably Sleep and 
more important at the present day. The noise 
noise of cities must be indirectly responsible for much 
consumption, in constraining many people to close the 
bedroom window in the effort to exclude it. This 
noise, however, has equally disastrous results when it 
interferes with sleep, causing dreams which are audi- 
tory rather than visual, and, indeed, in some cases 
leading to actual insanity, marked, as insanity is being 
increasingly marked, by an excess of auditory over 
visual hallucinations. In this connection the simple use 
of plugs of cotton-wool for the ears is to be recom- 
mended. It has no disadvantages, and certainly no 
one should close his bedroom window on account of 
noise, whilst neglecting to avail himself of cotton-wool 
for his ears. Properly made, these artificial ear-lids 
are highly effective. 

A great deal of nocturnal noise can be and should 
be suppressed in the interests of sleep, so urgently 
required by modern civilisation — in which, as is now 
certain, insanity is really increasing. Much of the 
noise made by railways is superfluous. Continental 
railways are much quieter than our own. There is 
no need for striking clocks. They survive from the 
days when people did not possess watches, and they 
cause far more noise or nuisance than they are worth. 
The same applies to all sorts of bells and chimes. 
There is no excuse or need for the church bell at the 
present day, and the practising physician knows that 
it may be an absolute curse to his patients, whom 
indeed, it frequently hastens into the other world for 
which it seeks to prepare them. 

A distinguished London physician says that he has 
"of late been much impressed by the numbers of neuras- 
thenics who suffer from auditory hyperesthesia, or 
over-sensitiveness to sounds, as compared with tender- 



120 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

ness of the visual sense." "This," says Dr. Hyslop, of 
Bethlem Royal Hospital, "is a clinical fact which my 
own experience confirms, and its significance is mani- 
fest and beyond dispute." There can be no question 
as to the increasing frequency of auditory perversions, 
and for this there is only one accountable cause, the 
excessive use and strain of the auditory centres in 
modern life. Dr. Hyslop thus quotes a French com- 
mentator on the noises of London streets : — 

"Is there anything to be compared with them in any 
civilised country? Where, in the whole world, will you 
find organs so loud permitted to disturb the peaceful 
inhabitants, who, in the fearful noise, can neither read 
nor write nor hear themselves speak? Where, in the 
whole world, will you find milkmen allowed to mew 
like wild cats or to rattle their cans before daylight, 
and break the rest of those who have not the privilege 
of selling milk — so-called; coalmen to bellow like bulls; 
costermongers and other vendors of rotten fish, putrid 
vegetables, faded flowers, cholera-giving fruit, and 
various unsavoury eatables — or, rather, uneatables — 
to shout their wares with voices that have nothing 
human, and to poison unoffending men, women, and 
children ?" 

The noises made by motor-cars and motor-buses are 
doubtless of ephemeral importance, depending only 
upon the primitive quality of their mechanism. A much 
more permanent nuisance, interfering with sleep, is the 
noise due to various animals. As to cats there may be 
some compensating uses, but I see no good reason why 
the keeping of dogs in a city should be permitted at all. 
Most of their noise means that they have something Br 
complain of, and, as I have said elsewhere, it shoulc 
appeal to those humanitarians who will not be movdj 
by the circumstance that it is a curse to human beings 
Most of the foregoing causes of noise are beyond tin 
control of the individual, though he helps to form tin 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 121 

public opinion which will remove them. Meanwhile I 
plead with him for the use of cotton-wool or other ear- 
plugs, safe, effective, and convenient, rather than 
closing the bedroom window, with all its manifold dan- 
gers. That, I fear, is the only practical suggestion 
that can be made at the moment as regards the rela- 
tions of noise to sleep, but simple though it be, it is 
worth adopting. 

It need hardly be said that the many bad sleepers 
who, as hinted above, have specially sensitive ears, 
must take appropriate precautions, especially as re- 
gards music at night. It might be supposed that with 
practice they can learn to tolerate what formerly kept 
them awake, but in point of fact this is not so. They 
can acquire toleration only by removing the under- 
lying nervous condition, and that is to be effected only 
by the rest which, however obtained, is the only remedy 
for neurasthenia. Least of all can a neurasthenic 
symptom be controlled by any practice which inter- 
feres with sleep. 

Disturbances from without, however serious though 
they may be, can commonly be excluded if one takes 
the trouble, and we may add that, in accordance with 
man's unique capacity for adaptation, it is possible to 
accustom one's self to ignore, at any rate in health, 
almost any external disturbance. The case is very 
different, however, with the internal causes of disturb- 
ance, to which nearly all insomnia is due, and certainly 
all intractable insomnia. A few points, some of them 
already alluded to, may be summarised here. 

It is asserted that overwork is a cause of insomnia. 
This I entirely disbelieve. We confuse work, as such, 
with work accompanied by worry, hope, sleep and 
joy — indeed, excitement or emotion of any overwork 
kind. It is emotion that keeps us awake. What more 
natural, if we realise what an emotion is? Consider 
for a moment the facts as regards work, considered 



122 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

by itself. Let a man undergo intense physical labour 
for some cause or other, and let it be continued for 
hours upon end. The normal upshot of such a process 
is sleep, which may indeed capture him as he continues 
to work. At any rate, so far as physical work is con- 
cerned, insomnia is no consequence of overwork. On 
the contrary, many a bad sleeper will profit by mus- 
cular exercise, provided of course that, as is insisted 
upon elsewhere, it be exercise with an object — that is 
to say, a non-hygienic object. Pure muscular work 
undoubtedly produces chemical substances in which the 
nervous system is bathed and which, besides interefering 
with the higher intellectual processes, will, when suf- 
ficiently concentrated, produce sleep. In the ordinary 
labourer this is the normal sequence, and many of us 
would do well to take a hint from him. 

It will be said, however, that not physical but mental 
overwork is referred to when we hear that overwork 
interferes with sleep. This also, as so stated, I deny. 
We have already noted the ways of the intellectual 
machine — how it requires warming up before it runs 
well, and how it is apt to go on running for some time 
after we no longer require it. Thus work at night may 
interfere with sleep, but you are probably wrong if you 
put this down to overwork. Rearrange your working 
hours, and you may get just as much done without 
inconvenience. This is not to assert for a moment that 
many people cannot do hard brain work at night with- 
out insomnia. But if instead of doing your normal 
four or five hours of reading and writing — say from 
nine or ten till two, as is the custom of some one very 
dear to me — you have occasion to give a lecture to 
which you attach importance, causing excitement, then, 
though you have done nothing like your ordinary quan- 
tum of work, you may find it impossible to sleep for 
several hours. It is not the work, but the emotion that 
has kept you awake. Many a man, then, who thinks he 






THE NEED OF SLEEP 123 

cannot do brain work at night, and who thus loses many 
precious hours, can save them if he will allot to this 
period of the working day the kind of work which does 
not excite. Let it be something of a dull and routine 
character. If he is his own secretary he may copy out 
extracts, compile bibliographies, make cross references, 
or do such writing as formal descriptions of something 
already known. Let him avoid the excitement of cre- 
ative work, on any plane. Best of all, let him read 
heavy books. If his attention persistently fails, as it 
will after a time with most people, then he is probably 
ready for bed. On the other hand, let him do his more 
interesting, that is to say more exciting, work in the 
morning; in most cases this will be not before break- 
fast, but after breakfast and the papers, by which the 
normal warming-up is accomplished. Such hints as 
these, of course, apply in detail only to the kind of case 
I know best, but the hard worker of any kind may 
profit by them, I think, if he will look to the principle — 
which is that abundance of work is not in itself a cause 
of insomnia, that work which causes emotion is best 
kept as far removed as may be from the time of sleep, 
but that the common prohibition of mental work at 
night — a period free from noise and interruption, and 
therefore valuable — may be ignored by most of us if 
we relegate to that time work which does not excite. 
For the student of any order there is enough and to 
spare of such work, goodness knows, and will be until 
the art of indexing and compiling references is vastly 
improved. 

But whilst the pleasant emotions are often causes 
of insomnia, they are as nothing in this connection 
compared with the unpleasant emotions, Sleep and 
which do nearly all their disastrous work worry 
upon mind and body by means of the insomnia which 
they cause. This is easy to point out, and would be 
very easy to preach about. I cannot here return to a 



124 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

subject to which I have already devoted a volume. 
But it is a great point made if we realise where the 
difficulty actually lies, since thereby we save ourselves 
the labour of beating the air. It is also a great point 
gained to realise that insomnia due to emotion, and 
especially to unpleasant emotion, can safely be con- 
trolled only by removing its cause. The narcotics in 
general have no field of usefulness in this connection, 
whether alcohol, opium or morphine, chloral, chlorala- 
mide, paraldehyde, sulphonal, trional, or even veronal. 
Each and all of these may have its use. The last, 
certainly, has its place (of course under responsible 
medical guidance) in the treatment of a comparative 
rarity, the pure insomnia of a hypersensitive brain. 
But for insomnia due to worry, not less than for insom- 
nia due to indigestion, these drugs are worse than use- 
less, as will be any future hypnotics that may supersede 
them. I do not know how to make this warning strong 
and effective enough. The case against these drugs 
in this connection cannot be overstated. We must re- 
turn to it. 

Just as emotion almost entirely covers the ground 
as regards the important internal disturbance of sleep 
Insomnia belonging to the mental category, so does 
and dyspepsia for the physical category. I say 

dyspepsia nothing here about pain and insomnia, since 
there is nothing to be said that the reader does not 
know, and since that is a matter for the practitioner. 
Dyspepsia is also a matter for the practitioner. The 
only service I can perform is to advise the reader of 
the fact. If you are a bad sleeper, the chances are in 
favour of dyspepsia as the cause. Now the amateur 
treatment of dyspepsia is almost as useless as the 
medical treatment applied by the sixpenny doctor : and 
that is saying a good deal. Volumes have been written 
about dyspepsia, and we have still almost everything 
to learn. The amateur cannot treat this condition. 



THE NEED OF SLEEP 125 

He can choke the symptoms readily enough, just as 
the sixpenny doctor can, but that way lies worse dis- 
aster. The only way in which to cure anything like a 
chronic dyspepsia with its attendant insomnia and a 
host of consequent evils, is by continuous attention to 
the directions of a good doctor: I do not say by con- 
tinuously taking the medicines of a good doctor. Your 
practice is perfectly well known to me, if it should so 
chance that you are the average reader. In a case like 
this, even having found your good doctor, you find the 
taking of his medicine no great burden, but the follow- 
ing of his advice decidedly irksome. One of the rea- 
sons which would almost warrant us in wishing for the 
abolition of all drugs is that this would give the doc- 
tor's directions a chance. If you get nothing but 
directions from your doctor, you will either follow them 
ar cease to consult him. If you get directions and 
irugs, you make a compromise, favourable to your- 
self, as you suppose, by swallowing the drugs, which 
is easy, and rejecting the advice, which is easier still. 

All this, it may be said, has nothing to do with 
insomnia. That is not so. Everything that has to 
do with dyspepsia has to do with insomnia, and the 
treatment of dyspepsia is exactly one of those cases 
where a writer in my peculiar position can serve both 
the public and the profession by tilting his lance at 
the drug fetish, and preaching that the doctor's advice 
is worth all his bottles. Of course, if your doctor has 
no advice, but only bottles to offer, by this sign shall 
you know that he should be heaving coals. 

It is to be understood then, quite clearly, that though 
there are hosts of drugs which will procure sleep, their 
use is extremely limited. In acute insom- i nsomn i a 
ma (as, for instance, that associated with and 
some forms of insanity, the insomnia of hypnotics 
pneumonia, and so forth) these drugs have a place — 
to be determined, of course, by the doctor in charge, 



126 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

They do not pretend to treat the cause of the con- 
dition, but, by preventing the loss of strength whicl 
insomnia involves, they may save the life or the reason, 
In preaching against drugs, as is so necessary, one 
must endeavour not to prejudice the reader against 
the legitimate administration of drugs by responsible 
persons. 

In chronic insomnia the utility of drugs, as everj 
doctor knows, is very small. There exist black sheep 
in every profession, and there are dishonest or crimi- 
nally careless doctors who will obtain credit by adminis- 
tering hypnotics in such cases. We shall make an end 
of such doctors before long, and not least, I believe. 
by the method of educating the public. In general, 
then, the doctor will not prescribe a hypnotic in such 
cases. His business, and }'ours, of course, is to ascer- 
tain the cause of the trouble and remove it, if possible. 
With this business no hypnotic has any relevance. A 
friend may hand you a prescription which, as he thinks, 
served him, or you may be tempted to purchase sul- 
phonal tablets or the like at your chemist's. This is 
the road to disaster. You may never reach that goal, 
but that is the road upon which your feet are set. 

Undoubtedly the progress of synthetic chemistry is 
making for the public health in this matter. This 
is to say that the hypnotics now employed, whether 
rightly or wrongly, are at any rate not so dangerous 
as those of some years ago. For the simple hypnotic 
purpose scarcely any one would now dose himself wit! 
opium or any of its products or with chloral. The 
simple bromides, long known and very safe, are proba- 
bly quite the least harmful of any hypnotics known 
but they are not powerful, and one feels it almosi 
unfortunate that if people will make experiments upoi 
themselves, they cannot choose such comparatively 
harmless drugs as these. Sulphonal was in some way 
an advance upon its predecessors, but trional is a grea 



THE NEED OF SLEEP in 

advance upon sulphonal — which, indeed, is now pre- 
scribed only through sheer inertia. It can do nothing 
which other drugs do not do better. Used under doc- 
tor's orders, paraldehyde is invaluable in some cases. 

The reader must not misunderstand me nor imagine 
that I am recommending him to help himself, if I 
refer, on account of its physiological in- Natural 
terest, to the latest substantial advance in hypnotics 
the use of hypnotics. This is represented by the drug 
called veronal. Introduced some five years ago, veronal 
has now passed into general use. If a hypnotic must be 
used for a simple insomnia unaccompanied by pain, 
veronal is undoubtedly superior to all its predecessors. 
The point I wish to make here, however, is that this 
case approaches, very probably, to an application of 
the vis medicatrix Naturce in the relief of insomnia by 
drugs, and thus, in a sense, marks a new stage. The 
chemist knows that veronal is very closely allied in 
its constitution to substances which are normally pro- 
duced in the body in the course of its activity. Re- 
cently in conversation, one of the most famous of 
living chemists, whose name is known everywhere as 
that of the founder of a new department of his science, 
told me that for a year past he had obtained good 
sleep from a five-grain dose of veronal every night, 
without any ill effect or any need to increase the dose. 
This result he attributed to the close chemical relation 
between veronal and natural body products, such as 
urea and uric acid, and his remarks clearly suggest the 
possibility of finding a natural hypnotic — if not, in- 
deed, the natural hypnotic. Veronal is not normally 
produced by the body, but near relatives of veronal un- 
doubtedly are. Now in this chapter we have had 
matters of more practical importance to discuss than 
the theories of sleep. It can scarcely be doubted, how- 
ever, that there is a considerable measure of truth in 
the chemical theory of sleep which suggests that a 



1£8 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

result of our waking activity is the production of a 
natural hypnotic which sends us to sleep. This theory 
is, indeed, supported by the very fact that a substance 
closely allied to natural products of our activity is 
found to be a hypnotic, and not only so, but a hypnotic 
producing natural, refreshing sleep without ill-effects. 
It may be hoped, then, that we have very nearly at- 
tained the discovery of the natural hypnotic or hypnot- 
ics which must almost certainly exist. Furthermore, 
we may suspect, I think, that while some cases of in- 
somnia (as, for instance, those due to pain or worry) 
do not depend upon a lack in the normal production of 
this substance, yet other cases — especially those where 
the brain without obvious cause, internal or external, 
remains wakeful — may actually be due to some peculi- 
arity in the bodily chemistry, whereby this unknown 
but very probable substance is lacking. These are the 
cases in which veronal, responsibly administered, is 
notably valuable, and these, perhaps, are the cases 
which will be still better relieved by the natural and 
ideal hypnotic of which veronal seems to foreshadow 
the discovery. This, of course, is a mere speculation, 
but is it not interesting? Does the reader demand 
an apology? 

As every one knows, elderly people commonly have 
less sleep than they had when they were younger. It 
Sleep and * s usually asserted that elderly people re- 
oldage quire less sleep than they used to. and it 

may be admitted that this change in sleep with age 
is probably normal, in the same sense as that in which 
senility and death may be, though they so rarely are, 
normal. In his admirable book "The Hygiene of 
Mind," a leading authority, Dr. T. S. Clouston, avoid! 
committing himself on this point. Speaking of the 
decadent period, he simply says, "Sleep tends to ch 
in character and to diminish in amount at this p 
It is not so deep, it is more dreamy, and ther 



THE NFrD OF SLEEP 129 

wakefulness earlier in the morning." The question 
must be asked, however, whether this diminution of 
sleep is not, in great measure, a cause of the decadence 
of mind and body ; that is to say, may it not be that 
senility, whether premature or normal, really consists 
in nothing other than a failure of the power of recuper- 
ation? If we could always make good our losses, should 
we need to die? There can be no question whatever 
that the answer is a negative. The time comes, how- 
ever, when we do fail fully to effect the processes of 
repair, and then we go downhill. On such a view it is 
not correct to say that old people require less sleep. 
If only they could obtain it, with all that it means in 
the way of recuperation and compensation for waking 
loss, their lives would be much prolonged. Do we 
realise the extraordinary longevity of many vegetable 
persons of slow mind w r ho are, so to say, more or less 
asleep nearly all the time? 

It may be granted that the elderly person appears 
to suffer little or not at all from a lack of sleep such 
as a younger person, and especially a growing child, 
would be gravely and obviously injured by. And this 
is the fact, of course, which leads to the statement 
that old people require less sleep. Nevertheless I 
counsel them to take what they can get, and even to 
be at some pains to see that they get all they can. 

And here this chapter may conclude with a piece 
of advice specially applicable to elderly people, but 
relevant to all cases. It is that if you cannot sleep, 
if you know by experience, let us say, that, waking 
up in the morning unduly early, you have no hope of 
more sleep, then abandon futile endeavors to get the 
impossible. In the first place, sleep is coy, and, like 
the maiden, cannot successfully be wooed with un- 
abashed front or by direct assault. In the second 
iplace, to worry about lack of sleep, to toss and turn 
^nd try, and toss and turn and try again, is to remove 



130 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



yourself so much further from the state of rest which 
you desire. All emotions are costly in life and energy. 
It is far better to cultivate a little philosophy if you 
can. If you cannot sleep and must do something, by 
all means read. It costs you far less in life frankly 
to give it up, and read at your ease, than to knock 
your head against the stone wall of your pillow. Bet- 
ter still, but much more difficult, is the practice com- 
mended and followed by Dr. George Keith and by 
some other sensible and self-controlled people, who 
achieve the triumph of lying quietly in bed for hours 
at a time when they should be asleep, placidly and 
happily, when you or I would be worrying, disgusted 
or furious. If a man, lying awake in bed, has muscular 
rest, sensory rest, and emotional rest, he is, I fancy, 
not very far from profiting as much as if he were asleep 
altogether. But if you cannot attain this second best, 
take the third best, which is some quiet and satisfactory 
occupation, rather than the worst, which is to exhaust 
yourself in the fight for repose. This is as profitless 
as the case of the Irishmen "fighting like divils for 
reconciliation." 

The time will come, probably this century, when 
we can all emulate the fortunate few, like Napoleon, 
and sleep at will. Possible for some, there is no reason 
why this should not be possible for all. We who can 
measure the stars will some day master our own minds. 



IX 131 

CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 

"I firmly believe that if the whole materia medica could be 
_ sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for 

mankind and all the worse for the sea." — Oliver Wendell 
| Holmes. 
1 . . . 

The chief objection to the taking of drugs, in general, 

| is its tendency to perpetuate the delusion that man 
exists in order to keep his body well. No Modern 
less cogent on other grounds are the drugging 
reasons which led Professor Osier, quite recently, to 
remark, about half a century after his illustrious 

L fellow-countryman whom I quote above, that he is the 
best doctor who best knows the worthlessness of drugs. 
Never since time began was the warning more neces- 
sary. The vile and obscene compounds of former days 
were at least offensive and difficult to obtain. To-day 
manufacturers vie in the effort to turn out drug prep- 
arations of the most attractive, elegant, and tasteless 
kind, scarcely less tempting than sweetmeats, whilst the 
press derives a large amount of its income from adver- 
tising them. Never before was there so much self- 
drugging. The enormous sums spent on advertisement, 
and the experience of retailing chemists, abundantly 
suffice to show the enormous quantity of drugs of one 
sort and another which the public stomach daily con- 
sumes. The composition of all these nostrums is easily 
ascertainable. They contain no remedies not familiar 
to the doctor, and the profit on their sale is colossal. 
Many of them contain most undesirable drugs which 
act upon the nervous sj^stem, from alcohol and opium 
to the various modern hypnotics and deadeners of pain. 
In the whole armoury there is scarcely a drug that 

I can possibly be described as curative in any sense at 
all. Many of them modify the symptoms of disease; 
and any of them, if and when they are adequately 
believed in, may cure certain disorders, just as so much 
water or burnt sugar would in the same conditions, 



132 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the patient's faith making him whole. On the other 
hand, it is beyond doubt that they do incalculably more 
harm than good, and do it at an enormous monetary 
cost. 

My general advice is, avoid them all as you would 
poison, which they are. The whole foolish business 
is a survival from primitive superstition, and merely 
suffices to show how much primitive credulity and love 
of magic survives in modern man. It is quite easy to 
avoid the imbecile habit of self-drugging, so readily 
approved by the man who would not dream of attempt- 
ing to repair his own motor car, which is as simple as a 
pin compared with the human body: but it is a most 
difficult matter to break the habit, and when the drug 
belongs to the class technically called neurotic, its 
chains are almost unbreakable. Pass them by, one and 
all, and spare your purse and your protoplasm. 

So far as the practice of self-drugging is concerned 
all sensible people will agree ; but most of them wil 
consider the case totally altered when the drug is pre- 
scribed by some one who knows what he is doing. Bu J 
the trouble is that he does not know what he is doing 
except in a few cases. The man who knows most abou 
drugs is the man who uses them leasts and the man whc 
uses the largest number in one prescription is the mai 
who has the smallest right to use any at all. 

In order to give the utmost force to the argument 
it is well to realise that, whilst it would be stron. 
enough if based merely upon a recognition of the coi: 
tinuance of the ignorance of our ancestors in the? 
matters, it is far stronger when based upon our preser 
knowledge. 

That was a right gibe of Voltaire's concerning tr 
physician of his day, who poured drugs of which r 
The history knew little into a body of which he kne 
of drugging less; but though it is fair to remembi 
that neither pharmacology — which is the scientif 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING IBB 

study of the action of drugs — nor anything really fit 
to be called physiology was in existence in Voltaire's 
time, yet the argument against drugging is not weaker 
now in consequence, but stronger. 

Generally speaking, we may say that before the dawn 
of Pasteur the causes of disease were unknown. Here 
was an ill man whose malady showed itself in certain 
symptoms — as, for instance, pain and fever. In the 
absence of any recognition of an underlying cause, 
these symptoms were the disease, and to remove them 
or smudge them over was to cure the disease. 

On the other hand, the fields sustained various plants, 
the leaves or roots of which would also cause unusual 
symptoms of various kinds in one who swallowed them. 
The dried juice of the poppy capsule relieved pain and 
sleeplessness, amongst the most distressing symptoms 
of illness, and the leaves of the foxglove or digitalis 
would retard an unduly rapid pulse. These are in- 
stances which explain the long practice of what we 
may perhaps call vegetable therapeutics — a practice 
which, except for a very small and continuously de- 
creasing number of drugs, is drawing to a close. 

Now I wonder whether there has ever occurred to 
the reader what occurred to me on my first day in a 
class-room of materia medica — that there is no par- 
ticular reason why the vegetable world should provide 
substances specially fitted to relieve the maladies of 
that remarkable animal — the living body of man. The 
plant has its own life to live, its own enemies to outwit 
or repulse, its own kind to perpetuate. "What's 
Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba ?" If I have neuralgia 
or the heartache, that is really my affair. I have no 
more reason to expect help from the foxglove than the 
foxglove has reason to expect help from me in its little 
difficulties; and if it be true that the foxglove will 
relieve my heartache — as indeed it has relieved many 
millions of heartaches — it is equally true that a slight 



134 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

miscalculation of the dose, only to be learnt by experi- 
ence, will put an end to my heart's activities and aches 
once and for all. In other words, to state the matter 
more gravely, there is no good reason, let alone any 
inherent necessity, why the active medicinal substances 
found in the vegetable world should serve ailing man. 
Indeed, so far as I can judge, the probabilities and 
the facts are all the other way. In the first place, when 
the botanical physiologist seeks to explain the function 
of these so-called medicinal substances in the plant, so 
far is he from suggesting a service for man, that he 
inclines to describe them as protective against the 
animal world. The delicious volatile oils which furnish 
the finest odours are probably produced by the plant 
in order to warn off, or to destroy, if they approach, 
objectionable insects; and a nauseating leaf does not 
constitute a thoughtful vegetable anticipation of the 
occasional emetic needs of man, but a means of en- 
suring that the animal who seeks to make a meal off 
such a leaf shall studiously permit the tobacco plant, 
let us say, to grow in peace for the future. Secondly, 
it is the actual fact that the overwhelming proportion 
of animal diseases — and of course man is distinguished 
as pre-eminently the animal who is susceptible to 
disease — are due to the attacks of vegetable organisms, 
seeking life in their own way as he in his. Such con- 
siderations, then, might well lead any one to express 
an a priori doubt whether the vegetable kingdom could 
provide, in general, any very potent means for relieving 
the maladies of man ; and indeed, when the matter is 
put to experiment, we find that there is — I believe I am 
correct in saying — only one human malady, or at any 
rate only one of any importance, for which the vege- 
table world provides a cure. Indeed, the cure of 
malaria by quinine must be regarded as a chance fact ; 
it just "happens" that a particular substance, pro- 
duced for its own purposes by a particular plant, ar- 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 135 

rests the chemical processes which serve the life of the 
animal parasite of malaria. It is the magnitude of 
this exception that points the rule — the rule which 
may be described as the irrelevance of vegetable chem- 
istry to the diseases of man. So far as I am aware, 
these considerations are novel, but I believe them to be 
reasonable. We are all prepared to talk glibly now- 
adays about "removing the causes," whether in indi- 
vidual or social pathology, but this very proposition 
amounts to an a priori condemnation of what we may 
call the vegetable therapeutics, for the simple and 
sufficient reason that there is only the very remotest 
of conceivable connections between the chemistry of 
some particular leaf and the cause of your malady or 
mine. 

Here, of course, is the explanation of the fact that, 
of all the thousands of vegetable drugs that have 
been employed, there is scarcely more than The failure 
one which has a specific curative action of drugs 
upon a human disease. The chemistry of the vegetable 
world is, so to speak, irrelevant to our needs; the 
chances were many thousands to one against the occur- 
rence in vegetable chemistry of any substance that 
happened absolutely to fit the needs of any particular 
disease — and but for the beneficent alkaloid of the cin- 
chona bark, we might have declared that the chances 
against this fortuitous fitness were as infinity to one. 
Evidently the chances are not so adverse to the exist- 
ence of vegetable substances which affect, in one way 
or another, one bodily function or another, and which 
therefore may, on occasion, relieve this symptom or 
that ; and it would be absurd to deny that morphia and 
strychnine and atropine, though they cure no disease, 
are of great service in medicine; but the fact remains 
that these influences are, of necessity, fortuitous, and 
the discovery of the causes of disease — which are in 
nearly all cases minute vegetable organisms — has at 



136 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the same time displaced the vegetable kingdom from 
the proud place which it has hitherto held in the phar- 
macopoeias of barbaric and civilised peoples alike. 
Vegetable drugs still outnumber all others many times 
over in the list of materia medica, but every student 
knows that hundreds of them might be permanently for- 
gotten without any one ever being a whit the worse, 
whatever his plight. Two striking instances will suffice 
to illustrate the trend of modern therapeutics. Not so 
many decades ago, one of the most common and terrible 
of all diseases, syphilis, was regularly treated with 
sarsaparilla. This drug is now totally discredited in 
that connection ; nay, more, the most delicate experi- 
ment has failed to show that it is capable of exercising 
any kind of influence whatever upon any function or 
organ of the animal body, whether in health or disease. 

A second instance is furnished by arnica, long 
thought, in the form of an alcoholic tincture, to be a 
specific for bruises. It is now known that, if the arnica 
be omitted from the tincture, the mechanical action 
of the alcohol and the contingent rubbing completely 
achieve the good results with which the entirely inert 
arnica was formerly credited. 

It may be added that the likelihood of any thera- 
peutic discoveries of any moment in the vegetable world 
is exceedingly remote. In the first place, the chances, 
as we have seen, are entirely against such discovery in 
a quarter which, as we understand, is inherently un- 
promising; and, in the second place, the most exhaust- 
ive research of the past few decades has failed to 
accomplish anything worthy of mention. 

Alcohol is a drug of vegetable origin, which in for- 
mer ages was regarded as a panacea. This aqua v'tttr, 
however, is now known to be an aqua mortis. There 
was no inherent probability that the product of the 
action of a low vegetable organism upon sugar should 
be of service to man in his need. On the contrary, 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 137 

i| most of man's gravest needs in disease are actually 
| due to the poisonous action of other substances pro- 
1 duced by the vegetable organisms closely related to the 
>| yeast plant. Alcohol was long regarded as protective 
jjj against tuberculosis, the most deadly of all diseases ; 
.' we now know that, as one of the greatest of French 
•j physicians has said, it "fait le lit de la tuberculose." 
I This most celebrated of vegetable drugs, regarded with 
(| superstitious reverence from the earliest ages, and 
: more widely praised than any of its rivals, is now 
known to predispose to disease of all kinds, and to 
cause many diseases of its own; and recent critical 
inquiry, involving comparison between cases of pneu- 
monia, typhoid, &c, in which alcohol is used, and those 
in which it is not, seems quite clearly to demonstrate 
,| what was always probably a priori, that the medicinal 
use of alcohol in the acute diseases which it has so long 
been supposed to relieve, is frequently the factor which 
turns the scale against the patient and determines 
his death. 

In short, if the exception of quinine be excluded, it 
is safe to say that for every patient whom a vegetable 
drug has cured throughout the whole history of medi- 
cine, millions have been killed. I do not doubt that 
this proposition would remain true even if the awful 
history of alcohol were ignored. 

If now, remembering the old game, "Animal, vege- 
table, or mineral," we turn to what we may call the 
mineral world, which supplies a certain number of 
gl drugs, we find the same state of things. Iron and 
mercury have their indisputable uses, which, in the case 
t of the latter drug at any rate, are a matter of chance 
J in the same sense as the relation of quinine to the para- 
3; site of malaria is a matter of chance. Typical of the 
1; decadence which is befalling this kingdom of drugs is 
the case of antimony, which was popular for so long, 
and which must have done many a poor sufferer to 



138 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

death. I am not prepared to quote any statistics, but 
I will wager that the number of practitioners under 
forty — or of soft-arteried practitioners over forty — 
who use antimony once in a decade, might be counted 
in tens, if not in units. 

What, then, of the animal kingdom? Notoriously 
the practitioners of centuries ago included many 
The new substances of animal origin in the un- 
therapeutics mentionable messes which served them for 
drugs. Behind all this superstition and ignorance, 
however, there was a reasonable principle obscured — 
the principle of what, to adhere to the terminology 
already employed, I may call the relevance of animal 
substances to the diseases of an animal. Consider the 
old case of wandering about a field or shrubbery, pick- 
ing out a leaf of some quaint shape more or less sug- 
gesting an animal organ, and using decoctions of that 
leaf for maladies of that organ, according to the doc- 
trine of "signatures"; consider the really pathetic 
naivete" with which such an accident was accepted as 
written advice, and contrast that utter irrelevance with, 
for instance, the case of cretinism and allied maladies. 
These, which include kinds of imbecility hitherto abso- 
lutely hopeless, are due to defective production of cer- 
tain chemical bodies by a small gland called the thyroid, 
which lies close to the voice-box. Administer thyroid 
gland to the cretin child and it becomes educable, intel- 
ligent, human. The drug is relevant. 

Or, again, take the other therapeutic triumph which 
was achieved in the last years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury — the antitoxin treatment of diphtheria. There is 
produced in the horse, possibly from the white cells 
of its blood, a specific substance which neutralises the 
poison of the diphtheria bacilli, and which is produced 
by exposure to that poison, and by that alone. Given 
to a choking child, this substance saves its life. Con- 
trast its relevance with the hopeless irrelevance of this, 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 139 

that, or the other infusion from China or balsam from 
Peru. As workers daily elucidate the real causes and 
nature of disease, so the domain of really respected 
drugs is being steadily narrowed down to a certain 
number which, to adapt Milton, are fit and fine though 
few. The total number of diseases, properly so-called, 
considered from the point of view of their causation, 
is very small. There may be hundreds of names denot- 
ing as many diseased conditions, but these may be 
really no more than varying effects of, let us say, alco- 
hol — this said alcohol, as we have hinted, being a 
vegetable drug, and the greatest material curse of 
our species. Now, as there are really few diseases, 
though countless symptoms, so there need be but few 
drugs that really cure. Evidently it would be quite 
sufficient if, for each disease, there were just one sub- 
stance which interfered with the causal chain. Thus 
the tendency of the pharmacopoeia is really from the 
many and generally useless to the few and fit. As long 
as all the maladies due to thyroid insufficiency were 
not understood, hundreds of drugs would be used to 
combat them, and every new one would be welcomed 
for its possibilities. Reduce all these maladies and 
their symptoms to thyroid insufficiency, and instantly 
jo\i sweep away a shopful of irrelevancies with a single 
relevant substance. 

Thus I would ask the reader not to be misled by 
such a phrase as "the decadence of the drug." Thy- 
roid extract is of course a drug; the diphtheria anti- 
toxin is a drug, and so are certain ferments of animal 
origin whose hour of triumph is near at hand. I should 
have done no service to any one if the thesis of this 
chapter were cited in favour of the countless quackeries 
which subsist upon the asserted failure of traditional 
medicine. It is wholly untrue that the most com- 
petent physicians use no drugs nowadays ; it is wholly 
untrue that such physicians have no longer any faith 



140 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

in drugs ; on the other hand, it is true that where their 
predecessors used scores of drugs, such physicians will 
scarcely employ more than a dozen. Nor would it be 
anything but folly for me to protest the decadence of 
the drug when the attention of all men has repeatedly 
been directed to the triumphs of antiseptic surgery. 
Historically, modern surgery is the triumph of a drug 
— carbolic acid ; but it was a relevant drug, deliberately 
selected because of its known poisonous action upon 
the microbes which cause surgical inflammation. Our 
phrases, then, must be chosen with circumspection; 
indeed it is not the decadence of the drug that I seek 
to describe, but the decadence of drugging. That ex- 
presses a real distinction. If we include amongst 
drugs, as we must, the whole series of antiseptics, 
anaesthetics, antitoxins, and substances of animal 
origin, then, certainly, the present age of medicine 
displays what may properly be called the triumph of 
the drug. 

Pari passu with this evolution in scientific medicine, 
there has developed a lamentable degree of self-drug- 
ging amongst the community — perfectly trivial, of 
course, in comparison with the drugging by alcohol, 
which we do not always so accurately name, but never- 
theless worthy of consideration. I am of opinion — 
perhaps because I am inclined to magnify my office — 
that the true means of opposing this evil, as in the 
case of alcoholism, is by education, by insisting when- 
ever it be possible upon the danger of these things. 
"Fear," said Burke, "is the mother of safety," and the 
wise man lives a charmed life amongst the host of 
poisons which offer him present gratification or ease, 
and slur over the future payment as did Mephistopheles 
with Faust, for the excellent reason that he is afraid 
of them. We all must fear something. The fool fears 
the phantasms of his own foolish imagining, and the 
wise man the truly fearsome. There, so far as this 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 141 

potent and universal emotion is concerned, is the dif- 
ference between them. 

It lies with the teachers of pharmacology, materia 
medica, and the whole subject of drugs in general, to 
initiate, when they please, a great reform in medical 
practice. At present these teachers, with but few ex- 
ceptions, consider it necessary to allude, at least, to 
practically every drug contained in the pharmacopoeia 
of the country in which they teach. But they know 
perfectly well that far more than half of these arc 
mere survivals from the pre-scientific age, the very 
existence and accessibility of which promotes unscientific 
and meddlesome and frequently deadly medical prac- 
tice. There needs great revision of the common medical 
curriculum in this respect. 

Let me conclude by indicating, very briefly, the pros- 
pects of treatment by drugs in the future. The old- 
fashioned drugging is already discredited, The future 
and no scientific physician now writes the of drugs 
sort of shot-gun prescription with which so many of 
our forefathers were peppered and slain. We recog- 
nise now that any drug must be regarded as a poison 
until the contrary is proved : and even invaluable drugs 
like quinine are poisons essentially. Prof. Metchnikoff 
has lately commented with force upon the fact that 
even this drug paralyses the white cells of the blood, 
and every physician knows that it is a neurotic poison 
as well. Knowing what drugs in general are, you can- 
not very well write a prescription with a dozen ingredi- 
ents in the hope that one, at any rate, will hit the mark. 
For what are the others hitting meanwhile? Fit and 
few, plainly, must express the future of the pharma- 
copoeia. 

As to the source of drugs, the vegetable kingdom 
is substantially exhausted already, and with results 
which, after all, are miserably scanty, simply because 
there is no reason why they should be otherwise. The 



142 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



same may be said of the mineral or metallic source 
of drugs. 

The future belongs, so far as the ideal hypnotic, 
the ideal anaesthetic, the ideal antiseptic, the ideal 
anodyne, and so forth are concerned, to coal tar and 
synthetic chemistry, which will take the hypnotic frag- 
ment of one molecule, combine it with the stimulant 
fragment of another molecule, and so produce a non- 
depressant hypnotic, for instance. 

But, so far as the actual cure of disease is concerned, 
the future belongs to the animal kingdom, so long 
neglected. And, after all, can we who speak of the 
vis medicatrix Naturae be surprised at this? The cura- 
tive power of Nature is effected, in the animal body, by 
animal substances : the thyroid gland will cure or pre- 
vent cretinism, the white cells of the blood produce 
substances that destroy microbes, and so on. The new 
therapeutics simply take the hint from Nature, and 
applies with intelligence the substances with which she 
has been preventing and curing disease since pain and 
death first came into the world. 

The object of all this dissertation is to strengthen 
the remarks made at the outset, by showing that, from 
the nature of the case, the drugs which so many of us 
now consume are incapable of curing our disorders, and 
can, at most, do no more than mask them. Let the 
reader be specifically warned against all drugs which 
contain opium, morphine, or alcohol, whether openly, 
as a few do, or secretly, as many do; and against co- 
caine; against chloral, trional, sulphonal, paraldehyde, 
and even veronal and other hypnotics ; against anti- 
pyrin, antifebrin or acetanilid, phenacetin, and chloro- 
dyne. The results of taking these things, none of which 
is a cure for any known disease, are only too often 
horrible in the extreme; and their nature is such that 
the only safe course is not to begin their use. These 
drugs attack the centres of self-control or inhibition, 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 143 

and there is little help or hope when these are cap- 
tured. 

It is possible for doctors to gain the temporary 
gratitude of their patients by the use of these things, 
but the risk of prescribing them is one from which the 
conscientious practitioner must always shrink. They 
have their uses, as arsenic and prussic acid have, but 
it is really more necessary that their employment should 
be limited and under responsible control than in the 
case of these two notorious poisons. This is not at 
present the case: but I would have almost all these 
things scheduled poisons, which they are, and pre- 
scribed as such. It ought to be impossible to repeat 
such prescriptions without the doctor's order, and abso- 
lutely out of the question that the prescription should 
be handed from one patient to another. 

The really curative drugs are of the body's own 
making, and they are not to be obtained at a chemist's 
shop, with an exception or two, such as thyroid and 
digestive extracts. We are only beginning to isolate 
these drugs, and little enough is known about them. 
But the greater part of this book is nevertheless really 
concerned with their production and employment in 
and by the healthy body. The reader who attends 
to the chapter on fresh air is favouring beyond a doubt 
the conditions under 'which the protective and cura- 
tive substances are "manufactured, dispensed, and ad- 
ministered by and in his own body, which is far and 
away the wisest and most accomplished of manufac- 
turing chemists, far superior to any doctor in the 
diagnosis of its diseases and their treatment. 

A word must be said here regarding patent medi- 
cines, for a leading principle of this book is to teach 
the reader how to avoid poisons, and these, patent 
like drugs in general, and like the gases of medicines 
foul air, and the products of over-eating, fall within 
the category. Whether or not this book will come 



144 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

under the eyes of the patent-medicine-consuming public 
I cannot say, but I hope so ; for it is high time that 
the classes of small means and education should ] we 
better guidance in this matter than is afforded them 
by the advertisement columns of the popular press. 
The consumption of patent medicines is difficult to 
estimate, but is certainly gigantic. The outrageous 
sums for which these compounds are sold are clearly 
indicated by the magnitude of the advertising which 
their proprietors can afford and which is all paid for, 
of course, out of the hard-earned money of the people 
who consume them. In a recent lawsuit it was stated 
that certain most familiar pills, which are eompo- 1 
of aloes, brought in an income of eighty-thousand 
pounds a year. I note, in passing, that no patent 
medicine proprietor in the world is possessed of any 
secret, or uses any drug not well known to honest 
pharmacy. Any one can at any time, by reference to 
the medical papers or to various little books on the 
subject, ascertain the exact composition of any patent 
medicine in the market. It is interesting, also, to havi 
such information as this, "Sold at . 1 >N. 7 l-2d. : averaj 
cost of materials, one-fifth of a penny." It will b< 
observed that this leaves a certain margin for th< 
vendor. It should be made a statutory requirement 
that the composition of these things be stated upoi 
every box or bottle. I do not know how the gorge ol 
any humane and honest man can fail to rise when h( 
considers how thousands of poor consumptives, whe 
need every farthing they possess for the purchase o 
pure milk and the obtaining of pure air. are spending 
their shillings on somebody's "lung tonic," let us say 
which is absolutely worthless, and probably worse thai 
worthless. Yet this sort of thing goes on everywhere 
and the writer, like myself, who is allowed a free banc 
in all other directions by any number of editors, can 
not gain a hearing on this subject, because "the pape: 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 145 

must live," and the advertisements of these liars and 
thieves are indispensable. 

Let us endeavour to state what can be stated in 
favour of these things. In the first place, by inducing 
the foolish to disburse enormous sums for advertising 
purposes, they enable the wise to obtain their journal- 
istic reading at much less cost than would otherwise be 
involved. In so far as this reading is instructive and 
wholesome, this is to the gain of the sensible at the 
expense of the foolish, and is so far not wholly to be 
condemned. Again, several of these preparations do 
aid the public in the discharge of its duties to its ali- 
mentary canal. If there were no constipation, the 
greater part of them would cease to exist. The price 
paid, however, for this boon is monstrous, not only 
in money but also in many other ways. 

Then, again, these drugs, like anything else, may 
do wonders if they are fully enough believed in. They 
owe to the influence of suggestion such reputation as 
they do not acquire by the aperient properties. Here, 
again, however, the cost is outrageous. 

On the other hand, there are the gravest disadvan- 
tages. I have alluded already to those drugs which 
have narcotic properties, in virtue of containing alco- 
hol, opium, etc. ; and too hard words cannot be spoken 
of these. But even the others are noxious. It is 
possible that one or two aperient drugs — such as 
cascara sagrada — most skilfully employed in frequently 
repeated and small doses, may be really tonic to the 
bowel, and so may remove the occasion for their use. 
This, however, is not to the interest of the vendor, and 
it may safely be said that none of the patented aperi- 
ents on the market are ever so employed. On the con- 
trary, they make the actual condition of the bowel 
worse, and may frequently lead to the production of 
haemorrhoids or piles, from which such a large pro- 
portion of the community suffer. 



146 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



Again, as I have said, they divert to useless purposes 
the money of poor or at any rate not affluent people, 
who need all they possess for obtaining the conditions 
which will enable nature to cure them. 

Lastly, the advertisements of these drugs produce 
by suggestion far more maladies than the drugs them- 
selves relieve by the same means. I have in my mind, 
for instance, a familiar picture of a man holding his 
hand to his back, wherewith the public is informed 
that pain in this region is characteristic of kidney 
disease, and demands the use of the remedy adver- 
tised. This is a lie; kidney disease is not marked by 
pain in the back or the kidney region, except in the 
relatively rare cases of stone, for which no drugs can 
do anything. Every medical student in his turn is 
reproved for stating — as a guess — that pain is a symp- 
tom of Bright's disease. The advertiser has simply 
discovered that pain in the back is a common disorder, 
and trades upon this fact. Apparently various poisons 
have a tendency to accumulate in the muscles of the 
back — outside the skeleton, and not in the abdomen at 
all — since the circulation is somewhat difficult here 
owing to man's adoption of the erect attitude and the 
influence of gravitation when we lie in bed. Hence 
almost every woman suffers from pain in the back at 
times, and very many men. This is a symptom of the 
poisoning we call lumbago, and of many other poison- 
ings, such as influenza. The advertiser tries to per- 
suade all such persons that they have diseased kidneys, 
and sells them aperients at some hundreds of times 
their cost price. It is an abominable trade, involving 
not merely what is realbr theft or the obtaining of 
money under false pretences, but also the production 
of a host of symptoms by suggestion in many people, 
whose lives it consequently makes miserable. If the 
reader cares to observe, he will soon discover that the 
symptoms described by all these advertisers are just 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 147 

those which can be most readily induced by sugges- 
tion, and those which most commonly spring from 
the minor poisonings to which we are all liable. Per- 
haps the people with money are made for the people 
without, as the Tichborne claimant said; but perhaps 
the present century will see an end of this pest in all 
civilised communities. Not least on this ground do 
I welcome the present tendency of scientific medicine 
to discredit drugs. Very soon the only people who do 
not believe in drugs will be the doctors, and after that 
the public may be expected to become imbued with this 
true medical belief, just as, in past times, they have 
accepted all the rubbish which doctors used to believe. 
If the reader persists in taking patent medicines after 
reading this chapter, either I am an incompetent writer 
who should be heaving coal, or he is an incurable fool. 

Since this chapter was written, another new drug, 
or more probably another new name, has been put 
upon the market, and has been advertised in column- 
long articles in most of the leading London papers. 
It professes to be a "Cure for Neurasthenia," and 
"Prevents Nerve and Brain Exhaustion and Decay." 
The proprietors profess to have found, in consequence 
of a "German physician's remarkable discovery," an 
extract of the "brain and nerve-building constituents 
of a quantity of foods, the mere bulk of which would 
otherwise preclude their ingestion, let alone assimi- 
lation" ; and a diagram is printed which shows the 
minute proportion of this wonderful substance which 
is contained in ordinary food. The whole of this is 
probably arrant nonsense, but this is not my present 
point. The advertisement includes what I regard, and 
will therefore describe, as an absolute outrage upon 
the public — a "pathological map of the victim's de- 
generation." This map consists of a series of stages, 
showing the development of neurasthenia. Stage 1 



148 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



is sensitiveness or nervousness ; 2, restlessness ; 3, irrita- 
bility; and so on, through "insomnia" and "inaptitude 
for steady work," to "paralysis" and "mental derange- 
ment," item 16, and last, being "Suicidal tendency." 
The advertisement adds that "the cases of 'Suicide 
while of unsound mind' and 'Death from unknown 
causes' . . . are alarmingly common manifestations of 
the development to advanced stages of 'cerebral asthenia 
and nervous asthenia.' " 

One could only be justified in giving any further 
publicity to this kind of thing if one could, as I can 
and do, declare that it is a piece of monstrous rubbish. 
It is astonishing that any responsible person can be 
so thoughtless as to permit this sort of thing to appear 
in a print for which he is responsible. Only thought- 
lessness, surely, can be to blame. 

It is no less than criminal that suicide should be 
suggested as the natural termination for the man who 
finds in himself a tendency to sensitiveness or inaptitude 
for steady work. No one who knows the influence of 
suggestion will question this opinion. An advertise- 
ment of this character could not be surpassed for its 
capacity to predispose towards, if not actually to pro- 
duce, the very evils for which it professes to offer a 
remedy. I think this is, without exception, the most 
disgraceful advertisement I have ever seen. Even the 
brutal purveyor of a secret cancer-cure cannot cause 
cancer by it. If the supposed remedy in question had 
fifty times the virtues alleged of it (which are doubtless 
far more than fifty times in excess of the facts) these 
advertisements would do far more harm than the drug 
would do good. It is a nice comment on the intelligence 
of the age in which we live, that morbid suggestions 
of this absolutely inexcusable kind, not stopping short 
at suicide, should appear in the public press, probably 
without any consciousness of their evil on the part of 
those who are responsible. It is outrage enough when 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 149 

drug advertisements are designed to create minor ner- 
vous disorders which any drug by suggestion may 
probably suffice to relieve. But the case in question 
exceeds anything of the sort, and it is high time that 
some one should brand it for the dangerous and criminal 
swindle that it is. 

One may note in passing that the only real remedy 
for neurasthenia is rest. If special drugs or food 
preparations can help, as they sometimes can, this pri- 
mary requirement must first of all be complied with; 
and secondly, the substances employed must amount, 
in effect, to the administration of the elements of milk, 
incomparably the best food for neurasthenia, — if not, 
indeed, for every other state of disease or health that 
can be named. If the reader desires to distinguish 
such preparations, let him note whether or not their 
composition is stated. If it is, he must further judge 
of its value ; if it is not, any further inquiry is super- 
fluous. 

The forenoted advertisement proves to have been 
an encouragement to others. As the proofs of this 
book pass through my hands, the following outrageous 
and criminal advertisement appears in the London 
press. Three large headlines run as follows: — 

"The Worst Disease in the World 

Kills and Drives Mad more People than any other 
Form of Illness 

The Awful Agonies of Nervous Debility." 

We are then informed that neither cancer nor con- 
sumption nor leprosy, but nervous debility, is the worst 
disease in the world. Further, that often we suffer 
from it and yet are quite unconscious of the fact. It 



150 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

is the most lingering, most torturing, and most painful 
disease in the world. Various familiar symptoms, from 
which everyone suffers at times, are then quoted. They 
are described as premonitory warnings of a disease 
"which, if neglected, probably ends in one of three 
things: (1) Imbecility; (2) Insanity; (3) Paralysis 
and Death." 

We are then told that "one of the greatest specialists 
on mental and nervous diseases says about this fearful 
complaint : — 

"I have seen around me, in my daily walks, thou- 
sands of men and women with the portents of coming 
madness or paralysis on their faces. In the omnibus, 
in the railway carriage, evcr} T where I go, I meet these 
victims of the strenuous life with the premonitory 
symptoms of dementia, paranoia, melancholia, loco- 
motor ataxy, paralysis, and other forms of mental and 
nerve disease. The slightest shock would kill them 
or send them to the lunatic asylum. Already our mad- 
houses and epileptic hospitals are crowded with the 
victims of that terrible modern disease, nervous debility, 
which is so contemptuously ignored by the multitude." 

This specialist is of the same order, one observes, 
as the gentleman who, in a recent celebrated trial, did 
not know whether Argyll-Robertson was one person 
or two. In this particular case drugs are not of much 
value, we are told. "Only electricity can infuse actual 
new nerve force into a person." We are to write at 
once for a book "crammed from cover to cover with 
the most sensational matter." "No one need despair 
except those who have actually reached one or more 
of the three final stages of the disease — imbecility, 
insanity, or paralysis." 

What adequate comment on this false and brutal 
advertisement is possible? It even surpasses that 
already quoted, and as I do not see how this form of 
crime can further go, I put it on record here. Except 



CONCERNING DRUGS AND DRUGGING 151 

in the description of the book which the advertisers 
supply, the thing is a series of the grossest lies from 
end to end, and the only adequate punishment for those 
responsible would be branding on the face and public 
exposure for the rest of their lives. 



152 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 



It is now necessary to offer the reader a long and 
purposely detailed discussion of alcohol. This may 
possibly not win his gratitude; he ma}- think its length 
disproportionate, its place premature, the treatment 
too contentious. Nevertheless I believe its statements 
to be true and momentous, and have tried to "gild the 
philosophic pill" with a certain amount of phy>iology, 
the interest of which can scarcely Ik- denied. There is, 
at any rate, an intentional compliment to the reads 
involved in the disputatious pages that are to follow. 
It is assumed that he is a rational man of the twentieth 
century, who has long ago abandoned the always dan- 
gerous practice of accepting dogmas — theological and 
medical too — on authority, and that lie would feci in- 
sulted if, on this vexed <r writer should simply 
state his practical advice in the spirit of our friend 
who said, u Fm not arguin' with yer, I'm a-tellin' of 
jer. n This method may or may not do to-day for 
the theologian ; it used to do very well for the phj 
but the time for it is ps If the facts 
of experiment and observation are submitted to the 
reader, there is no necessity for the writ?r to draw 
the inferences as to practice therefrom. The r. 
logical faculty is perfectly competent for that purpose. 
If this plan involves much space, wlu 
precepts — do this, and don't do that — would not oc- 
cupy a page, it cannot be helped. All t' 
rules for health could almost be stated in a couple of 
pages of this book, and the only excuse for making a 
book at all is to be found in the hope that the writer 
may demonstrate the rules to be framed by N 
herself, and may sometimes content himself with 
ting them altogether and citing the fact* I 
they may be inferred. 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 153 

Some four years ago I published an essay 1 entitled 
"The Verdict of Science upon Alcohol," and, on re- 
reading it, with something like amazement yearly the 
one realises how rapidly the chief problems verdict of 
of alcohol are in process of solution. That science is 
essay endeavoured to present perhaps an s reng ene 
inadequate, but at least an unbiassed and moderate, 
account of the case against alcohol as then formulated 
by the scientific prosecution — or, rather, by the coun- 
sel for physiology only. To-day the cons there stated 
still stand; but the points on which the verdict of sci- 
ence went in favour of alcohol, only four years ago, 
must now be revised. Truth cannot be sacrificed even 
to the desire to seem fair, and so, in presenting in its 
latest form the verdict of science upon alcohol, one must 
risk the charge of prejudice and prefer it to the risk 
of treachery to truth. And, for its interest and 
novelty, let us consider, perhaps in irregular order, the 
newest, the most dramatic, and certainly the least ex- 
pected and most revolutionary, of the counts upon 
which science bases its all but unqualified verdict of 
guilty against that chemical substance which, of all the 
millions known to chemistry, stands alone for sinister 
importance. 

As a preliminary we may remind ourselves that the 
blood, commonly thought of as a fluid, is crammed 
with a multitude of living cells, which are dis- The cells of 
tinguished as red and white. In a volume of the blood 
blood equal to two pins' heads, there should be found 
some five millions of the red and some eight thousand 
of the white cells. These last are commonly known as 
leucocytes — which is, of course, simply the Greek for 
their English name. They exist in various forms, 
which probably represent different stages in the cycle 
of their lives. Despite their abundance — which we 

*In "The Cycle of Life" (Harper & Bros., 1904). 



154 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

would regard as amazing were it not that they are so 
completely outnumbered by the red cells — their business 
in the blood has not been easy to elucidate: yet some 
business they certainly must have. In their adult and 
most characteristic form they are described as "amoe- 
boid," since they very strikingly resemble the amceba, 
a humble single-celled animal of our ponds. The chief 
characteristic of the amceba is its "amoeboid" movement 
— its habit of crawling slowly from place to place by 
thrusting forth temporary protrusions of its substance, 
which are called pseudopodia, or false feet. If a de- 
lectable particle be encountered en route, two such false 
feet (which might equally well be described as false 
arms) will enclose it in the false mouth which appears 
between them. Thus they serve alike for hands, feet, 
and jaws. Certain substances and circumstances will 
attract an amoeba or a leucocyte, whilst others will as 
definitely repel it. The study of the phenomena of 
inflammation has long acquainted us with what is known 
as the "emigration of the leucocytes." It is known 
that in the course of the inflammation which is the 
(desirable) reaction of any tissue to an (undesirable) 
injury, the leucocytes congregate in the blood-vessels 
of the part and emigrate through their walls by the 
amoeboid movement just described. The process may 
take half-an-hour for an individual cell, and is well 
worth watching through the microscope. Further- 
more, it is found, in inflammations generally, that 
throughout the blood-vessels of the body the number 
of white cells is markedly increased. It may be multi- 
plied as many as five or more times in the course of such 
a disease as inflammation of the lungs or pneumonia; 
and in general the presence of such multiplication of 
the leucocytes, or "leucocytosis," is of good omen for 
the patient, whereas its absence is to be feared. Given 
the disease, the symptom of leucocyte-multiplication 
is a healthy one. 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 155 

It was about a quarter of a century ago that 
Professor Metchnikoff, now the chief ornament of the 
Pasteur Institute of Paris, studying the The work of 
economy of a minute creature called the Metchnikoff 
water-flea, was led to a discovery which will give him 
a permanent name in the history of science. He found, 
in a word, that it is the business of the leucocytes to 
attack and dispose of the causes of inflammation within 
the body. Such causes may be mere mechanical par- 
ticles of coal-dust, and in such cases the leucocytes 
will pick these up and dispose of them. Thus they 
are the scavengers of the blood. But they are far more. 
Immeasurably the most important causes of inflamma- 
tion in the body are not mere particles of dirt, but, as 
every one knows, are themselves living cells, which Pas- 
teur discovered and called microbes. The discovery 
of the great Russian scientist, on whom the mantle of 
the Frenchman has fallen, was simply this — that it is 
the habit, duty, and function of the white cells of the 
blood to seek out, eat up, digest, and utterly destroy 
the microbes of disease. If these be present in the 
blood itself the defenders need not undertake foreign 
service. But if the invaders have not attacked the 
citadel, the defenders will issue forth, pass through 
the walls of the blood-vessels, and do their duty far 
from home. 

The military methods of the "phagocytes," or "eat- 
ing cells," as Professor Metchnikoff has re-named the 
leucocytes, cannot be better studied than in the case of 
malaria. It is true that the microbe 1 of malaria is 
a bold foe, and invades the very blood itself, so that we 
cannot here study the emigration — or should one say 
the disembarkation? — of the white cells. But the mi- 
crobe of malaria, though only single-celled, is relatively 

x It is an animal, not a vegetable organism, and the term is 
usually confined to certain forms of the latter. But its deriva- 
tion justifies a wider use of the word. 



156 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

large and highly organised, whilst it contains a number i 
of dark particles which are seen to be in active move- 
ment when the health and vigour of the microbe are 
at their highest. If, then, a drop of the blood of a: 
malarious patient, taken at the right time of day, be : 
placed upon the stage of the microscope and kept warm, 
it is an easy matter to detect within it two main types of 
actively-moving cells — the leucocytes and the microbes. 
Assuming that the patient is doing well, and especially 
assuming that Ins leucocytes have been fortified by the 
presence of a small quantity of quinine in his blood, we 
shall observe that the microbes are singled out for at- 
tack by the leucocj'tes. We need not take too seriously 
the stories of those observers, or poets, who have seen,, 
or imagined, the temporary discomfiture of one leuco- 
cyte in such a case — the said wise white cell subse- 
quently returning with two friends, and thus achieving 
success. At any rate, there is no dispute that the 
phagocytes slowly but certainly extend their deadly 
arms around the invaders. At last, a microbe may be 
seen completely enclosed within a leucocyte — winch is 
not so very much larger than it. The rapid vibratory 
dance of the dark particles in the microbe gradually 
becomes slow and feeble. Finally, it ceases altogether. 
The microbe, we may take it, is dead. If we watch 
it yet further we find that its form can no longer be 
recognised. It is undergoing digestion, and shortly its 
sole remaining traces consist of a few scattered black: 
dots, lying in the substances of the victor, and not yet 
disposed of. Meanwhile, our friend the patient is be- 
ginning to see the world again through the normally 
rose-tinted glasses of returning health. 

In consequence of these and a thousand facts more. 
Professor Metchnikoff long ago maintained, and stil 
maintains in a somewhat modified form, the doctriru 
that, in general, our susceptibility to or immunity fron 
disease, the process of infection, and the process oi 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 157 

H recovery from infection — all depend ultimately upon 
the powers of our white cells. This is not the place 
iin which to prosecute a controversy of long standing, 
Jbut we may say that after all these years Metchni- 
JkofFs teaching stands. The white cells may or may 
linot receive assistance from outside. Such substances 
las the antitoxin of diphtheria, whiofo we owe to 
;;Metchnikoff's great German rival, Von Behring, may 
lor may not be actually formed, as Metchnikoff teaches, 
jby the white cells themselves. But in every case the 
power of the white cells, whether aided by ammuni- 
ijtion which they themselves produce or by ammunition 
jwhich other portions of the body contribute to their 
laid, is the power upon which largely depends human 
^health, and upon the failure of which depends the over- 
whelming proportion of disease and death. This being 
.asserted, let us return to alcohol. 

/ In the essay referred to, I spoke — as I had been 
j taught — very favourably of the value of alcohol in 
(fever. Thus if we take the instance of the Alcohol 
3 most deadly of all acute diseases, which is and the 
pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs, * eucoc y te s 
jwe find that, though the abuse of alcohol is notoriously 
J one of the most important factors in its causation, the 
-large majority of doctors habitually employ this drug 
fljin the treatment of the disease. There has never been 
^anything like scientific proof that the administration 
>jof the alcohol is of value, but there has been a wholly 
*!uncritical and unexamined presumption in its favour, 
^though I confess that my faith was shaken, even as a 
^student, by the splendid records, in respect of pneu- 
jmonia, of a particular ward in the Royal Infirmary 
;of Edinburgh, the authorities of which, unlike their 
^neighbours, did not use whisky in its treatment. But 
Ithere are precise means nowadays by which the rela- 
tions of alcohol to infectious disease — that is to say, 
Imicrobic disease — can be fairly tested. Such tests have 



158 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

been made under the guidance of Professor Metchnikoff 
himself, whom every one knows to be a single-eyed 
servant of truth, and who has no bias save in her 
favour. It is a privilege to give further publicity tc 
the following sentences, quoted from the memorable 
lecture delivered by Professor Metchnikoff in Maj 
1906 for the Royal Institute of Public Health in Lon- 
don, and before an audience worthy even of him: — 

"Although the phagocytes 1 belong to the most resistant 
elements of our body, yet it is not safe to count on then. 
insensibility towards poisons. We have seen how they art 
harmed even by small doses of opium. I am not able tc 
enter into details with regard to all the substances whict 
are adverse to phagocytic action, but I must call your at- 
tention to the influence of alcohol on immunity. 

"It is well known that persons who indulge too . 
in alcohol show far less resistance to infectious di 
especially to croupous pneumonia, than abstemious indi- 
viduals. The vaccinations against hydrophobia carried 
out on persons bitten by mad animals are almost a 
successful; but those cases in which the treatment does noi 
stop the outbreak of the disease are most frequently ob- 
served in individuals addicted to alcoholism. 

"In pursuance of this observation, Delearde, of tin 
Pasteur Institute in Lille, has undertaken a series ol 
experiments, which have proved to him that the absorptioi 
of alcohol is without doubt a grave obstacle to immuniza- 
tion against hydrophobia. At the same time he founc 
that rabbits to which he administered alcohol in the course 
of immunization against anthrax died of this di 
whilst the 'control* animals, which were given no alcohol 
could be vaccinated without any difficulty. 

"Abbot has confirmed these experiments by proving tha 
animals, if subjected to the influence of alcohol, b 
more sensitive to the harmful effects of several microbes 
such as streptococci, staphylococci, and bacteriir, 
Later on Laitinen carried out a great number of experi 

1 Phagocytes=eating cells— Professor Metchnikoff's name fb 
the leucocytes. 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 159 

merits from the same point of view and with similar results. 
Our interest centres mainly in his experiments on vaccina- 
tion against anthrax. To a number of rabbits alcohol was 
administered for several days in succession, and they were 
then injected subcutaneously with a small dose of the 
first vaccine of anthrax. Six animals thus treated died 
after a more or less prolonged illness; all of these con- 
tained anthrax bacilli in their blood and organs. Of four 
control rabbits which received the same dose of the same 
vaccine, but to which no alcohol was administered, only 
me died, whilst the other three enjoyed perfect health, 
several other experiments furnished similar results. 

"Alcohol therefore suppresses the natural immunity of 
rabbits towards the first vaccine of anthrax. This im- 
pairment of their resistance was manifested by the inac- 
tivity of their white blood-cells; thus the bacilli were 
permitted to multiply without being checked by a suffi- 
ciently strong phagocytic reaction. As has been estab- 
lished by Massart and Bordet, the leucocytes are sensitive 
sven to small doses of ethylic alcohol, and present a nega- 
tive sensibility in the presence of this substance. 

"Besides its deleterious influence on the nervous sys- 
tem and other important parts of our body, alcohol there- 
Pore has a harmful action on the phagocytes, the agents 
3f natural defence against infective microbes. . . . 

"As a logical consequence of the experiments on the 
weakening of immunity under the influence of alcohol, it 
tias been suggested to eschew this substance in the treat- 
ment of infectious diseases ... we must strongly insist 
mi the danger of alcoholism with regard to resistance 
againt pathogenic microbes." 

The reader will see that the question now under 
discussion has been answered by cold science, which 
is concerned, as such, merely to ascertain and register 
facts. Surely the facts quoted, in the exact words of 
the authorised translation from the original French 
of the lecturer, are worthy of the widest dissemination 
throughout the world. 

These experiments — and now the bedside observa- 



160 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

tions of many and ever more physicians — compel me 
therefore, to eat my words. In favour of alcohol on* 
can no longer state, as I am sorry to say that I usee 
repeatedly to state, that it retains its claim to utility 
in fever. The drug, in a word, paralyses the defend 
ing army, and the serious question arises whether an; 
advantages it may possess are not more than out 
weighed by this gravest of disadvantages. It may b 
predicted that in ten years alcohol will be no longe 
administered in fever, for bedside observation is nov 
being found to coincide with the indications of experi 
ment upon the blood of the lower animals. Out o 
the mouths of two such witnesses the evidence that pro' 
ceeds must be held valid. 

Much space has purposely been spent upon th 
discussion of these entirely new and revolutionar 
The para- observations. Now, as briefly as possibk 
doxesof let us sum up the main counts on whicl 
alcohol previously, science had condemned alcoho 

Science has proved that the paradoxical substanc 
which makes us feel warm, and which we therefor 
take "to keep out the cold" — a quite insane proceed 
ing — markedly and constantly lowers the temperatur 
of the body. It does this in fever. But we shall se 
that to give drugs which lower the temperature i 
fever is to interfere with one of the conditions whic 
the body provides for its own defence. Alcohol lower 
the temperature because it throws much warm bloo 
to the skin, the temperature of which, with charactei 
istic superficiality of judgment, we regard as our ten 
perature. Not only does it increase the loss of hen 
from the body, but it also lessens the production o 
heat — i.e. the production of energy — within the bod 
by its action upon the red blood cells, an action muc 
longer known than that upon the white cells. Alcohc 
increases the stability of the compound which the re 
matter of the red cells forms with oxv^en. so the 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 161 

the rate at which the oxygen is given up for the burn- 
ing or combustion of the tissues, with consequent pro- 
duction of heat, is much reduced. Alcohol contains no 
nitrogen, and is therefore incapable of replacing tissue- 
waste within the body. Yet — paradoxically again — it 
often leads to the accumulation of fat, because it pre- 
vents the fat from being burnt up. Yet again, the 
drug which most of us think of as a stimulant may 
possibly still claim some place of esteem for the phy- 
sician, since it may be of value as a sedative — another 
paradox. The stimulation of the heart by alcohol, 
being very rapid, is invaluable in many a fainting-fit; 
but alcohol is a deceiver ever, as we have seen, and its 
stimulation, unlike that of a true heart stimulant such 
as coffee, or a truer heart stimulant such as foxglove 
or digitalis, is followed by a greater depression. It is 
therefore properly classed as a pseudo-stimulant, the 
action being due to its paralysis of the nerves which 
normally restrain the action of the heart. 

But the paradoxes are not yet ended. There seems 
to be no point on which alcohol does not claim from 
the uncritical a verdict which the man of science finds 
it necessary to reverse. We might well have spent a 
whole chapter upon the work of Kraepelin concerning 
the effect of alcohol on the brain and mental action. 
Most of us believe that we think more quickly, more 
brilliantly, more effectively, under the influence of alco- 
hol. For certain temperaments this may possibly be 
true. We know that Coleridge wrote his "Kubla Khan" 
under the influence of opium, and this teaches us a 
general lesson as to the possibilities involved in the 
first or pseudo-excitant stage of the action of narcotic 
drugs upon brains of certain types. But Kraepelin 
has proved in his psychological laboratory that the 
mental action of the normal brain is hampered by alco- 
hol. The owner of the brain does not agree. Tested 
with a column of figures, with a simple matter of logic, 



162 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

with the formation of a simple association of ideas, 
or with tests of quickness of response, the normal sub- 
ject under the influence of alcohol thinks that he is 
doing splendidly. On the contrary, he is doing very 
badly indeed. Though he seems to himself to be work- 
ing at great speed, the tell-tale pendulum or tuning- 
fork finds that he is working more slowly than normally, 
and the examination of his results shows that they 
are less accurate. The scientific study of alcohol is 
a study of paradoxes, of which this last is the most 
striking. 

A still more recent instance of the point in question 
may be quoted from Mr. M'Adam Eccles (British 
Journal of Inebriety, April 1908) : — 

"The want of efficiency produced by alcohol is well 
shown by a series of experiments arranged in Sweden, 
with the object of ascertaining the influence of alcohol 
upon accuracy in marksmanship. None of the men ex- 
perimented upon were abstainers. Three corporals and 
three privates were chosen for the purpose. In the first 
series of experiments no alcohol was given. In the next 
it was provided, and in the third it was again withdrawn. 
Spirits and beer were alternately tried. The result of 
these experiments indicated, without a single exception, 
a reduction of the accuracy of aim as a result of the alco- 
hol consumed. Yet all the men, after receiving their 
allotted portion of alcoholic drink, had declared that they 
felt far more capable — but found themselves deceived." 

One should call special attention to this matter 
because the facts, as scientifically ascertained, are so 
strikingly at variance with popular opinion; and let 
us first insist upon the validity of our authorities. 
It need hardly be said in passing that their results 
have been abundantly and repeatedly verified by sub- 
sequent observers — as is the case with Professor 
Metchnikoff's researches upon the action of alcohol 
on the white cells of the blood. One is concerned 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 163 

here only to present indisputable facts; the case is 
far too strong to excuse a writer for making dubious 
assertions. If I were to do so, there might well be 
applied the famous words of Sir Thomas Browne, 
"Every man is not a proper champion for truth, nor 
fit to take up the gauntlet in the cause of verity." 
Professor Kraepelin's name is doubtless unfamiliar to 
the general public, but few who know would dispute 
the proposition that he is at this moment the greatest 
living student of the mind diseased. 1 In his own great 
sphere he is as illustrious a figure as Professor Metch- 
nikoff is in his. We must accept no authority as such 
on any point, and, for the matter of that, Professor 
Kraepelin's work can be repeated and verified with the 
simplest apparatus in any psychological laboratory 
anywhere; but the reader should recognise that the 
names quoted are held in reverence by all who know 
for what they stand. The opinion of the practitioner 
who has read nothing for thirty years does not count 
against these. 

Before we go on to consider what is, perhaps, the 
most interesting discovery regarding the action of alco- 
hol upon the brain — for which its affinity is Alcohol and 
so remarkable that in cases where, after motoring 
death, the most delicate chemical tests fail to reveal 
the presence of the minutest trace of alcohol in any 
other organ or tissue, it can be readily detected in the 
fluid peculiar to the brain and spinal cord — let us ad- 
duce from a very different field a striking confirmation 
of the scientific work of Kraepelin and his followers. 
Every one who can afford it runs a motor-car nowa- 
days, and motorists as a whole can scarcely be described 
as possessing any particular prejudices against alcohol, 
nor as being peculiarly distinguished by psychological 
knowledge. They are merely a common-sense, prac- 

^■He approached the question many years ago as a believer in 
the virtues of alcohol. 



164 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

tical body of men who indulge in a sport that is not 
without risks, and who have their necks to think of; 
not one in ten thousand of them has ever heard of 
Kraepelin. But what is the first essential demanded 
by every prudent motorist when he is selecting a chauf- 
feur? It is that he must be a total abstainer. Prac- 
tical hard-headed experience has shown that the nervous 
balance required in a man who drives a motor-car is 
impossible of maintenance under the influence of alco- 
hol. Thus almost the first thing that a chauffeur puts 
down, when he is writing an advertisement for a post, 
is that he is a total abstainer. There is no fanaticism 
or sentiment about this, but there is sound science — for 
science is none other than organised knowledge or or- 
ganised common-sense. Your man may sometimes be 
late, may sometimes forget to clean his brass, or may 
even be inclined to take unnecessary risks ; but, at least, 
he shall have no alcohol in his brain when he is driving 
your wife and child. I personally have a curious idio- 
syncrasy towards alcohol, so that, though I do not 
taste it once in a twelvemonth, I have, on a few occa- 
sions, been able to take extraordinary quantities for 
the purpose of observing its effects, and have never 
been able to observe any effects of any kind, either 
upon mind or body; yet I should never dare to drive 
a motor-car after taking even a single glass of whisky. 
Now it is a notorious fact that, notwithstanding all 
that has been said, an apparently stimulating effect of 
Alcohol and alcohol upon the brain is constantly ob- 
self-control served at every dinner-party. When the 
company assemble and make each other's acquaintance, 
they are comparatively silent and reserved, not to say 
dull, but when the champagne begins to circulate they 
reveal to each other hitherto unsuspected powers of 
conversation and humour; whilst after dinner, in the 
smoking-room, the men find it as easy to talk as it is 
difficult to get a hearing. Has not the alcohol in such 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 165 

a case plainly stimulated the intellectual and lingual 
powers? The answer is that here is another paradox. 
The nervous system of man, as Dr. Hughlings Jackson 
long ago pointed out, may be conceived as consisting of 
a number of levels, each of which exercises a power of 
control or inhibition upon the levels beneath it. The 
lowest level, which is also the oldest in the history of 
the race, is the most stable; whereas the highest is the 
most delicate and unstable, being also the latest of 
evolution in the history of life. A paralytic agent, 
such as alcohol (the same being true of many others, 
and also being true of the onset of sleep), attacks 
each level successively, from above downwards. Now 
what is the function of the highest level of all? It 
is inhibition or control, judgment and self-restraint. 
When you enter the reception-room before dinner and 
encounter a number of strangers, you are on your 
best behaviour; you are not going to make a fool of 
yourself or "give yourself away" before people of whom 
you cannot be sure. Whatever stores of intelligence 
and humour you may have are by no means left at 
home, but the highest level of your brain is doing its 
work, and you have yourself well in hand. Then comes 
the champagne, and the first part of your nervous 
system which it paralyses is the highest and least stable. 
Its action is arrested, caution and restraint, and not 
infrequently even common prudence, are cast to the 
winds, and you let yourself go. To interpret this as 
the stimulation of thought and speech is pure ignor- 
ance: the results are the results of paralysis of the 
inhibitory or self-controlling centres. Let the taking 
of the drug be indefinitely continued, and speech, for- 
merly fluent, will become incoherent ; thereafter even the 
oldest centres will be attacked, until at last the "vital 
point," or the centre for respiration in the lowest part 
of the brain, is paralysed, and the patient dies of acute 
alcoholic asphyxia. 



166 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

The foregoing statements about alcohol may tell 
this way or that way ; they may be new or old, pertinent 
The general or impertinent; they are submitted to the 
conclusion thoughtful reader as true. These state- 
ments, excepting those concerning the white cells and 
the relation of alcohol to fever, have been made repeat- 
edly in many places during the last four years, and 
frequently not without some truculence of tone and an 
evident yearning to fight. But though I have trailed 
the tail of my coat so long, no one, either in England 
or America, has yet trod upon it. I think, therefore, 
we may be assured that there is no case for the defence. 

We have here confined ourselves to the briefest 
possible statement of the verdict of physiological and 
psycho-physiological science only. But the reader will 
admit that there is a fairly comprehensive range even 
within these limits, since they enable us to speak, at 
the one extreme, of the crawling movement of white 
blood cells, and at the other of the supreme human 
character of self-control. But chapters at least equally 
formidable might be severally written upon the ver- 
dicts of a host of other sciences. There is, for in- 
stance, the verdict of psychiatry or the science of 
insanity. If we say that alcohol is responsible, directly 
or indirectly, for anything between one- third and one- 
half of all cases of insanity, we are well within the 
mark, and are only indicating the sum and substance 
of a terrible indictment that might be written. 
Another such indictment might consist of the verdict 
of pathology — the science of disease-changes within 
the organs and tissues of the human body. There is 
no organ or tissue, not even excepting the skin, that 
does not display alcoholic changes only too familiar 
to the pathologist. His verdict, one need hardly say, 
is echoed by that of clinical medicine (Greek kVine. a 
bed), the study of disease by the bedside of the living 
patient. 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 167 

More significant still is the fact that if even a volume 
were occupied in recounting the verdict upon alcohol 
of the various studies which may be grouped together 
as the biological and medical sciences, there would 
jet remain a whole group of sciences, subtler still, with 
which the friends of alcohol must reckon. These are 
the social sciences, the truly scientific character of which 
thinking people are just beginning to recognise. One 
of the newest and most interesting, though perhaps 
the smallest of these, is criminology, the science of 
crime. How wretched and imbecile an unguided society 
may be in such matters is sufficiently proved by such 
cases as that of Jane Cakebread, who was convicted 
for drunkenness on hundreds of successive occasions 
in London, to the accompaniment of the laughter which 
King Solomon well described as "like the crackling of 
thorns under a pot" — the laughter of fools. But it is 
not with the mere crime of drunkenness that we need 
be most concerned: it is with alcohol as a cause of 
crime of more serious kinds. It might easily be shown, 
if this were the time and place, that the science of 
criminology alone returns a damning verdict against 
alcohol. Or, again, take another small department 
of the social sciences — the science of vital statistics, 
the chances of life, and the rates of insurance. There 
is surely no particular fanaticism or sentiment about 
insurance offices, any more than amongst motorists ; 
they are now learning to discriminate between those 
who drink and those who do not, because it pays. 
Doubtless there are sources of fallacy in these statistics, 
but it may easily be proved that, when these are elim- 
inated, alcohol, as a factor in the matter of vital 
expectation, is one of the foremost subjects that can 
concern the practical sociologist. 

Lastly, there remains the verdict and the monstrous 
practical problem, still unsolved, of the great science 
called jurisprudence; what has legislation done, and 



168 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

what can legislation do? For it must be remembered 
that, though science in these days of free thinking 
can arraign this suspect, like any other, before her 
bar, asking no one's leave, can find it guilty, and can 
even pronounce sentence, society alone can carry the 
sentence out. 

It is pre-eminently in legislation that some believe 
for the effecting of this purpose, and we can certainly 
lend no countenance to the belief, which is surely idi- 
otic, that no kind of legislation whatever can effect 
anything in this direction; but, perhaps because I am 
inclined to magnify my office, I place my trust in 
education rather than compulsion — in the reformation 
of that public opinion which Huxley was only too 
right in calling a "chaos of prejudices," but which 
alone rules the world. In the words of Hosea, the 
"people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," and it is 
the duty of those who possess the knowledge to dis- 
seminate it, that the people may live: which end dim 
these pages serve. 

Let us turn now to consider the claims of alcohol 
to rank as a food. The working-class family spends, 
on an average, six shillings a week upon it ; and we 
are about to provide non-contributory old-age pensions 
in Great Britain. The question has its political as 
well as its personal side. 

Unlike other substances, alcohol requires independent 
consideration both as a food or beverage and as a drug, 
The claims ^ or ** might be both. In this scientific 
of alcohol age it would be wrong to appraise it as 
as a food a c ] rU g — t ] iat ; s to say? to cons id or j ts ac _ 

tions in disease — without acquainting ourselves with 
its properties in health, its actions upon the normal 
body. This is only to say that, as in the case of all 
other drugs at the present day, a rational therapeutics 
or application in disease must be preceded by a critical 
pharmacology, which is the science that concerns itself 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 169 

jpith the action of drugs upon the normal body. But 
:he pharmacology of alcohol — to use the technical 
phrase — is of more interest than that of any other 
Irug. For this substance claims to be regarded as a 
food, and the study of its history in the healthy body 
s therefore an end in itself, quite apart from any 
question of its applications in disease. 

Plainly, alcohol can never be a food alone. A typical 
food, such as white of egg or sugar, passes into the 
3ody, is digested and utilised. It has no appreciable 
ictions upon the body except the production of the 
tactions necessary for its digestion. It does not affect 
;he rate of the pulse nor the process of respiration. It 
s simply a food material and nothing more. Alcohol, 
lowever, though it may be taken merely as a food or 
leverage, and though it may conceivably possess food 
properties, is never neutral as regards the functions of 
;he body. Alcohol the food must always be alcohol the 
hug as well — a point all but invariably forgotten by 
ts friends. 

Its claims to be regarded as a food can readily be 
examined. Every food substance must either supply 
i necessary ingredient of the bodily composition or 
t must be a source of energy. Common salt is a food 
)ecause sodium chloride, of which it consists, is a neces- 
sary ingredient of the body. It is constantly being 
ost from the body, and must therefore be constantly 
supplied to it. On this score, at any rate, alcohol has 
10 claims to be regarded as a food. It may occur in the 
ibstainer's body, but only as an effete product. Again, 
vhite of egg is a food because it is a proteid capable 
)f replacing the body proteids, which are constantly 
3eing broken down and destroyed in the course of the 
rital processes. Our life depends upon the incessant 
lestruction of our tissues, and anything is a food which 
*vill make new tissue. Alcohol is not a constituent of 
my tissue, and is incapable, as its chemical composition 



170 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

admittedly proves, of being utilised even as a mere 
brick in the building up of any tissue. It contains 
no nitrogen. It has no claims, therefore, to rank 
amongst the most valuable and essential kinds of food 
material. 

Now such a food substance as white of egg is not 
merely capable of replacing tissue, but can also supply 
The com- energy to the body. It is thus, in a special 
bustionof sense, a complete food material. But there 
alcohol admittedly do exist a whole host of food 

materials which, though they are incapable of form- 
ing tissue, are at least indisputable fuel for the body 
furnace. Typical of these is that invaluable fuel sugar, 
which is stated to be the source of about half the' 
total energy of the body, including the energy dis- 
played in the form of heat and the energy displayed 
in the form of muscular motion. Food materials of 
this subsidiary but not unimportant order all agree 
in one essential character: they are capable of being 
burnt at the temperature and under the conditions 
of the human body. It is in virtue of this burning, 
combustion, or oxidation that they yield heat and other 
forms of energy whereby we live. Now sugar, for in- 
stance, will not burn at the temperature of the body 
ontsidc the body. Very much higher temperature^ are 
necessary before it will combine with the oxygen of the 
air. But when the sugar is taken into the bodv and 
meets with oxygen of the air which has been taken in 
for the purpose by the lungs, it is capable of 
burnt, the difference being due to the presence of sub- 
stances called ferments within the body. Now the 
question is whether alcohol is entitled to rank in the 
same class as sugar. 

When we study the chemical composition of alcohol 
we discover facts which do not discountenance tins 
supposition. For the chemist, the substance whicl 
usually call alcohol is the second member of a 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 171 

series of alcohols, and its special name is ethyl alcohol. 
Every molecule or smallest possible portion of this sub- 
stance contains two atoms of carbon, six of hydrogen, 
and one of oxygen. Now carbon and hydrogen are 
highly combustible or oxidisable substances, and they 
need far more than one atom of oxygen in each molecule 
of alcohol to satisfy their affinities for it. Fully to 
burn up all the carbon and hydrogen in one molecule 
of alcohol would require not one atom of oxygen, but 
seven. The theory of the chemist is of course verified 
by common experience, as every one who has burnt 
methylated spirits can testify. Alcohol is combustible 
outside the body at a sufficiently high temperature — 
that is to say, if a lighted match be applied. The 
first question for us is whether the conditions of the 
human body are such that, even at its modest tem- 
perature of only 98.6° F., it is capable of oxidising 
alcohol. This can positively be answered by experi- 
ment. Let alcohol in various strengths and in various 
beverages be administered to the subjects of our ex- 
periment, and then let us ascertain whether all that 
was given can afterwards be recovered from the vari- 
ous channels, such as the skin, the kidneys, and the 
lungs, 1 by which the body gets rid of foreign sub- 
stances. Alcohol is a foreign substance essentially, 
whether it be a food or not, for it is never allowed long 
te remain in the body as such. 

Now the result of these experiments is to prove 
that not all the alcohol given can be recovered; some 
of it has vanished, and it has vanished because it has 
been oxidised in the body. The reader will observe, 
of course, that we are not now discussing the question 
of the food value of such a beverage as beer; we are 
merely discussing the value of the alcohol in the beer. 
The relative value of the various beverages, depend- 

1 And J very notably, the breasts in the case of a nursing mother. 



172 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

ent upon their possession of other substances than 
alcohol, is a matter for separate consideration. 

But as every one who has encountered the breath 
of a drinker knows, not all the alcohol consumed ie 
burnt up, and we must therefore inquire into the limits 
within which alcohol is combustible. For instance, ii 
ten glasses of whisky be consumed in a day, how mucl 
of the alcohol they contain is burnt up, and how mucl 
leaves the body as such? This highly important ques- 
tion has been very critically examined, and with fairh 
definite results. The amount of alcohol which can be 
burnt up in the human body is exceedingly small, ever 
under the most favourable conditions. If it be taker 
in small quantities at a time, and well diluted, probably 
about one and a half ounces of alcohol can be con- 
sumed, oxidised, and destroyed in the normal body in 
twenty-four hours. The conditions necessary for the 
combustion of this very small amount are never com- 
plied with by those who use alcohol as a beverag 
they were complied with, and if the combustion realty 
involved the production of food-value, this would be 
practically negligible, whilst its cost would compare 
very unfavourably with that of any other food sub- 
stance in common use. 

In short, the claims of alcohol to be regarded as a 
food in health are of the flimsiest and most trivial 
description, even without further examination. Under 
conditions never complied with, a perfectly trivial 
amount of alcohol, costing a ridiculou>lv large sum. 
may be oxidised in the body; no more can be said. 

But, indeed, more can be said. For the argument 
that, if alcohol can be consumed in the body it is 
Alcohol is therefore a food, is fallacious, as has lately 
not a food been pointed out. Morphine, for instance. 
and many other poisons, are oxidised or burnt in the 
body, but no one could therefore call them foods. 
Their combustion is one of the means by which the 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 173 

body protects itself. The same is true of alcohol, 
and its combustion and consequent destruction is the 
means by which, together with extremely rapid ex- 
cretion of the remainder, the body protects itself as 
far as possible from its poisonous action. 

The point in question is a very good instance of 
the risks which attend the writer who ventures to say 
any good of alcohol. (There are risks of another 
order in saying evil of it, however truly, but that is 
another matter.) The necessity of retracting, after 
only a few years, various statements made in favour 
of alcohol — and its remaining professional supporters 
are mainly elderly gentlemen who prefer the doctrine, 
opposed to all the spirit of science, "What I have 
said, I have said" — should have warned me. Yet, in 
the first draft of this chapter, the oxidation of a small 
quantity of alcohol under certain conditions was ac- 
cepted as evidence of its food-value; and now, on 
revision a few months later, one has to alter and add 
in the light of more recent observations, which teach 
that if alcohol is to be thus regarded as a food, so 
must every other oxidisable poison, from morphine 
downwards, against which the body thus protects it- 
self. If any good apparently remains to be said of 
alcohol to-day, one must beware lest to-morrow gives 
one the lie ! 

But we have hitherto dealt with only one side of 
the question. Alcohol the food is also alcohol the 
drug, and we must balance the two sides Alcohol as a 
of the account before we can return any druginhealth 
final answer to the question of the "use" of alcohol 
in health. In the case of a true food there is no need 
to ask the question, "What else does it do?" But 
that is precisely the question which we must ask in 
the case of alcohol. A great authority, Professor Sims 
Woodhead, has well said that, at a pinch, you may 
run a marine engine with sea-water and find harbour, 



174 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

but you will ruin your engine in the process ; and the 
fact is that alcohol — even were it a food — would neces- 
sarily be like sea-water in this respect. It would help 
to run the engine, but it would shorten its life. This 
we shall see when we proceed to consider what is techni- 
cally known as the pharmacology of alcohol — its action 
upon the healthy body. 

As we have already hinted, the characteristic and 
most important actions of alcohol are upon the nerv- 
ous system, both in its capacity as the organ of mind 
and as the governor of the physical processes of the 
body. But we may leave these at present and begin 
at the beginning — the local or contact actions of alco- 
hol upon the tissues which it encounters on its way to 
the nervous system. In a word, alcohol is a local irri- 
tant, its exercise of this property depending, as in the 
case of all irritants, upon its concentration. The initial 
effect of any irritant is to cause increased activity and 
the presence of an increase of blood in the tissues with 
which it comes in contact. 

Dismissing as unimportant the effects of alcohol 
upon the mouth, we may consider its action upon the 
stomach. It has very long been believed that the 
drug aids digestion, and there can be no question that 
there are alcoholic beverages which have this effect; 
but it is more than questionable whether the viri 
beer, for instance, in this respect should not be attrib- 
uted to ingredients other than its alcohol. In the first 
place, the proportion of alcohol in beer is very small, 
yet beer may promote digestion whilst whisky cannot, 
though its proportion of alcohol is lar. in, non- 

alcoholic beers are much more valuable for the digestion 
than ordinary beers, their virtues being due to the bit- 
ter substances, and more especially to the digestive fer- 
ments, which they contain. It is thus a mere failure of 
discrimination to attribute these virtues to beer as an 
alcoholic liquor. The typical actions of alcohol upon 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 175 

jihe stomach are those of an irritant, and, if this irri- 
gation be persistently exercised, the result is to pro- 
duce permanent changes in the structure and functions 
M the lining of the stomach. In thousands and thou- 
sands of cases these changes, which are absolutely 
irreparable, proceed so far as to cause permanent dys- 
oepsia, with dilatation of the stomach, and a host of 
subsequent evils. Passing onwards from the stomach, 
alcohol in a highly concentrated form tends to inter- 
fere with the movements of the digestive canal. In 
pertain cases it may be usefully administered for this 
purpose ; but, when these movements have not been ren- 
c|dered excessive by other causes, the action of spirits 
jwill evidently be in the direction of aggravating one of 
ithe commonest minor maladies of civilised life. 
/ Alcohol is then absorbed into the blood, and pro- 
ceeds to exercise its powers upon that invaluable fluid, 
land upon the various organs and tissues it nourishes ; 
[ibut if the dose was fairly concentrated, certain of these 
organs have already been affected, not by the presence 
(of alcohol within them, but by what is called reflex 
Jstimulation from the stomach. The organ most mark- 
jedly thus affected is the heart, the movements of which 
are accelerated. Together with this acceleration there 
jgoes a tendency to relaxation of the blood-vessels, so 
ijthat the circulation is hastened. In cases of threatened 
peart failure from shock — as when a person faints on 
^hearing bad news — or in cases of fainting from any 
■cause, this instantaneous reflex action of alcohol, which 
;| anticipates even its very rapid absorption into the 
J blood, may be of the utmost value, as we all know. 
1 But here we must interpolate a warning. All cases 
I of apparent fainting are not true faints, and it is only 
I in cases of the true faint that this action Alcohol in 
of alcohol is desirable. On two occasions fainting 
it has been my experience to interfere, not without diffi- 
I culty, with the administration of alcohol to a patient 



176 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

stricken with apoplexy in a concert room. To the un 
instructed eye such cases resemble those of fainting 
and spirits are only too frequently given. Apoplex; 
is due to the escape of blood from a broken vessel it 
the brain, and it will be evident to the reader who ha 
followed me thus far that the administration of alcohc 
to such a patient is precisely the worst measure tha 
can be adopted, since it instantly provides all the con 
ditions necessary for acceleration of the haemorrhag 
which is threatening to take the patient's life. Ther 
are many other cases of loss of consciousness due t 
various kinds of auto-intoxication, as the phrase goes— 
that is to say, intoxication by the body's own product 
— and even cases of acute intoxication by alcohol it 
self, besides those due to various other poisons, such a 
oxalic acid and carbolic acid — in which the commo 
practice of the helper is to administer a dose of spirit* 
Practically without a single exception these cases ar 
injured by such a procedure. It is only in the simpl 
faint that alcohol is really useful, and scores of live 
are lost every year by its stupid administration i 
cases where it can only injure. 

Now, having noted the remote effects which alcohc 
can produce, even before it enters the blood, let u 
Remoter note * ts e ff ec *s upon that fluid itself. I 
effects of the first place, as Professor Metchnikoi 
alcohol nas lately proved, it tends to paralyse th 

movements of the white blood cells. This, as we hav 
seen, is a matter of the first importance in disease 
In the case of the healthy body, which we are no 1 
considering, this alcoholic paralysis of the white cell 
— the guardians of the body — is a matter of impoi 
tance not graver than that of the drunkenness of an 
soldier in time of peace. It probably makes him les 
fit for the fray when the occasion arises, but it is o 
little importance for the moment. Fortunately th 
white cells are seldom actually at war: the sue 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 177 

I ^jentry of microbes into the body, as distinguished from 

I itheir mere entry into the nose or stomach, is not a 
matter of everyday occurrence. 

More important from the point of view of the man in 
^ordinary health is the influence of alcohol — already 
'briefly alluded to — upon the red cells of the blood. 
jThe substance which gives these cells their colour is 
jknown as haemoglobin — the most complex chemical com- 
pound with which we are acquainted. Its business is 
to form a loose compound with the oxygen which it 
encounters during its passage through the lungs, and 
in its subsequent journeyings to give up this oxygen 
•i wherever it is needed — that is to say everywhere, for 
I every living molecule or cell lives in virtue of com- 
ibination with oxygen. Certain agents are capable of 
1 making this loose and temporary compound, "oxy- 
hemoglobin," somewhat firmer and more permanent, 
*| with the consequence that, though the oxygen is ob- 
| tained readily enough from the lungs, it is not readily 
'! handed on to the tissues. Alcohol has been definitely 
I proved to possess this property. Now there are two 

I I conspicuous results of the oxidation of the tissues. 

ij The oxidised tissue breaks down, is burnt up and dis- 
appears: and in the process heat is produced. Hence 
we find that the habitual consumption of considerable 
quantities of alcohol, interfering with this process of 

Jij oxidation, leads to the accumulation of superfluous tis- 
'! sue in the body — in a word, the drinker becomes stout. 
* Certain alcoholic beverages, such as beer, contain food 
i material which, if properly burnt up, would provide 
; the body with heat and energy, but the alcohol which 
1 is taken with them interferes with their combustion, and 
j consequently they accumulate. The hideous obesity of 
: ; many drinkers is familiar enough. 

But the diminished production of heat may also be 
i a matter of importance. We know definitely that the 
i maintenance of the normal temperature of the body 



178 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

enables it to resist the attacks of microbes. A hen is 
commonly immune to. anthrax, but if its body tem- 
perature be reduced by standing its feet in cold water, 
the injection of the same dose of bacilli as was for- 
merly inoperative will cause a fatal attack of the 
disease. We know also that when microbes have taken 
their hold upon the body it commonly raises its own 
temperature — with the production of what we call 
fever — for the purpose of aiding it in its resistance. 
Physicians of the past generation regarded fever as 
dangerous in itself, and opposed it by various means — 
including, when they were introduced, such dangerous 
drugs as antifebrin and antipyrin, which lower the 
fever, but do not in the least degree affect its cause. 
It has now been proved, however, that such procedure 
injures the patient. Furthermore, it has been proved 
by the closest experiment that the various degenerative 
changes in the body which used to be ascribed to fever, 
and were indeed ascribed to fever even when I was a 
student, are not at all the products of the raised tem- 
perature of the body, but are the results of its poison- 
ing by microbes. If the poisoning be present, but the 
temperature kept down, these disastrous changes still 
occur. If the temperature be artificially raised without 
any poison, and be even maintained at what used to be 
thought a dangerously high level, for long periods of 
time, these degenerations do not occur. In the last ten 
years a wiser medical science has completely revolu- 
tionised the old conceptions of fever. Now let us apply 
these facts to the case in point. 

It follows that any substance which tends to inter- 
fere with the normal production of the bodily heat 
tends ipso facto to lessen its powers of resistance to 
microbes. Thus we find that the action of alcohol upon 
the red cells of the blood has — in effect — the same 
result as its action upon the white cells of the blood, 
already noted. Not only does it directly paralyse the 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 179 

[defenders, but it interferes with the conditions under 
:, which alone, even if they be not paralysed, they can 
ilbest do their work. 

Yet, again, to complete our consideration of this 
subject, alcohol notoriously dilates the superficial blood- 
-vessels of the body. It throws a large amount of blood 
ji to the surface of the body, which is in contact with the 
[; cool external world, and thus it very markedly increases 
jj the loss of heat from the body. It thus strikes at the 
r maintenance of the bodily temperature in two comple- 
- mentary ways — both by interference with the produc- 
tj tion of heat and by acceleration of the loss of heat. 
,; Observe, then, the supreme fatuity of taking a nip 
;! of whisky on leaving your friend's house on a cold 
3! night in order to "keep out the cold." It is your 
: experience that such a dose of alcohol makes you feel 
3 warm. You know that it is good to be warm, so far 
•I as the attacks of the microbes of a common cold or 
i bronchitis or pneumonia are concerned; and you think 
LI that if you feel warm you are warm; but your judg- 
•j ments are superficial, as are all our judgments that are 
|,i based on mere sensation without reflection. When you 
[1! say you are warm, all you mean is that your skin is 
warm. The nerves of temperature are not supplied 
to the interior of the body, but to the skin alone, and it 
is its temperature alone that they register. If the 
terminals of these nerves be bathed in a large quantity 
of rapidly-flowing blood, as is the case when alcohol 
has been taken, you feel warm, and think that you are 
warm. But in point of fact you are, of course, losing 
your heat with very great rapidity. This is evident 
to common sense ; it can be proved by experiment in 
health, and it is notoriously true of disease, for the 
substance which is taken by the layman in order to 
keep out the cold is, or used to be, given by the doctor 
in order to lower the temperature in fever — which it 
most effectively does. 



180 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

We now have a complete explanation of the fact thai 
the absorption of alcohol, with subsequent exposure to 
cold, so frequently results in pneumonia, which is bj 
far the most fatal of all acute diseases. The microbe 
of pneumonia is quite commonly found in the mouth; 
of healthy persons, waiting for a breach in the de- 
fences. Their host marches out into the night, fortifier 
by a dose of whisky in order to keep out the cold. Hi? 1 
idea of keeping out the cold is to give out as much 
heat as possible to the cold, and to interfere, as far a? 
may be, with the production of any more heat : and in' 
order to do the thing thoroughly, he arranges for the 
paralysis of his leucocytes. What more can the mosi 
dainty pneumococcus demand? 

The reader may or may not continue to take alcoho 
after reading this chapter, but if he does continue, at 
least let him be honest with himself and admit thai 
he takes it because he likes it — which is no bad reasor 
in itself. But at least let him refrain from taking ii 
in order to "keep out the cold." If he does so, he n 
not merely ignorant, as we all are, but I will frankh 
declare that he is incapable of being taught. Now iJ 
the survival of the fittest means anything in moderr 
society, it is that the capacity for learning, whether b\ 
personal experience or by the experience of others, it 
a factor that has survival-value, and the reader whe 
will not learn or cannot learn will assuredly tend to gc 
under — he and his children: and the sober questior 
must be asked whether, on the whole, his disappear- 
ance, doubtless to be regretted on personal grounds 
is not for the benefit of the race at large. 

We have come to observe that alcohol tends in twe 
ways to lower the bodily temperature in health and 
also in fever, and only ten years ago it would haff 
appeared that this tendency to lower the temperaturc 
must be counted to it for a virtue which may be bal- 
anced against its vicious action upon the white cells. 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 181 

But our new knowledge of the meaning of fever has 
made it a laughing-stock. Fever is not a disease, but 
a symptom. It is not bad in itself, but good. It is 
a bad thing that fever should be necessary for the 
protection of the body; but, if it is necessary, it is a 
good thing that it should be available. To interfere 
with fever, whilst doing nothing to interfere with the 
activity of the microbes which have evoked it, is more 
akin to murder than to medicine. In future, then, we 
must divide all febrifuge or antipyretic measures and 
drugs into two classes. In the one class, the members 
of which are lamentably few, is quinine as administered 
in malaria; this is a febrifuge because it kills the mi- 
crobes that make the fever necessary, and with their 
death it declines. si sic omnes! In the other class, 
the name of which is legion, are to be ranked such 
drugs as alcohol and antifebrin, which do not injure 
in any degree the microbes of disease, but merely make 
the body incapable of providing the temperature which 
it finds necessary for its defence — besides paralysing 
the defenders. Only a few years ago, in my discussion 
of the "keep out the cold" theory of alcohol, I used 
to ask the public to contrast this practice of theirs 
with the fact that alcohol is given by doctors in order 
to produce cold — that is to say, in order to lower a 
high temperature. There was a possible retort to this. 
If amongst the hundreds of thousands of persons, or 
rather millions, who must have read these attacks, there 
had been one intelligent and critical publican or share- 
holder in a brewery company, he might have retorted 
that, since doctors found alcohol useful in the cure of 
fever, surely the public were justified in procuring 
it for the prevention of fever. In stating the case of 
science against alcohol, however, it is apparently pos- 
sible to leave oneself open to such retorts, perhaps 
because of those effects of alcohol upon the mind which 
are notorious to all. 



182 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

That weak point in the argument, however — or point 
which would be weak if it had to bear any strain — 
can now be strengthened, for it can.no longer be main- 
tained, as in the desire to be impartial I used to main- 
tain, that alcohol is valuable in fever. It was supposed 
to be of some value as a food that requires no diges- 
tion; but, at any rate, it is of less than no value in 

so far as its febrifuge properties are concerned 

in so far, it is objectionable just as antifebrin is ob- 
jectionable, and in so far its use should be abandoned 
just as the use of antifebrin has been abandoned. J 
Nowadays the doctor welcomes the decline of the fever 
if he believes that this indicates the disappearance of 
the need for the fever; but as long as the need persist- 
— a need which alcohol does nothing to remove — he 
desires to see the fever well maintained, and nothing 
alarms him more than the failure of the body to 
maintain it in such circumstances. He knows that 
the falling line of the temperature chart may mean 
either the destruction of the invaders or the failure of 
the defences, and he will no longer be deceived into 
paralysing the defences by alcohol under the delusion 
that the decline in temperature thus caused indicates 
the destruction of the invaders. 

In association with the subsequent chapter on 
the use of meat, the reader may note the following 
Alcohol and re cent summary of the relations between 
meat alcohol and meat (British Journal of Ine- 

briety, April 1908) :— 

"While, then, alcohol may act directly upon the elastic 
tissue of the arterial wall, this is not all. for it may also 
act indirectly. Alcohol retards the excretion of toxins 
and other poisons from the blood. It is a fact worthy 
of notice that muscular activity causes the formation of a 
peculiar waste product termed 'hypoxanthin.' This has 
to be eliminated as quickly as possible if the indi- 
vidual wishes to keep fit. It is absorbed by the lym- 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 183 

phatics and passed into the blood, by it carried to the 
kidneys, and by them excreted. It is a definite poison, 
and, like alcohol, tends to produce arteriosclerosis [i.e. 
morbid arterial hardening]. Alcohol markedly diminishes 
the excretory power of the organs which cleanse the blood 
of its impurities. Alcohol thus prevents the rapid elimina- 
tion of hypoxanthin, with the result that the blood becomes 
surcharged with the poison. In this fact lies the chief 
reason why all in strict training advisedly eschew the use 
of alcoholic beverages. Hence it can be clearly seen that 
the two deteriorating substances may be acting together, 
the one being, as it were, the complement of the other, 
with the consequence that the alteration in the arterial 
wall is doubled in its severity. Overeating of animal food 
introduces into the blood an excess of a similar product to 
that known as hypoxanthin, and, where this over-indul- 
gence in meat diet is associated with an habitual use of 
alcohol, the double force will again be at work." 

There is no lie about alcohol which the medical pro- 
fession has not in its day supported; but that pro- 
fession can learn, and so must the public. Prominent 
amongst these lies was the idea that alcohol was 
protective against consumption and tuber- Alcohol and 
culosis in general. The most recent pro- consumption 
nouncement of a great pathologist, Professor Sims 
Woodhead, may be quoted ("The Drink Problem," 
page 76) :— 

"Alcohol, far from being antagonistic to tuberculous 
disease, as was at one time supposed, is looked upon as 
one of the great predisposing factors in the production 
of both acute and chronic pulmonary tuberculosis, and it 
is generally accepted that in alcoholic patients tuberculo- 
sis is far more likely to assume an acute and generalised 
form than it is in the non-alcoholic patient; for, as Dr. 
Dickinson said, 'We may conclude, and that confidently, 
that alcohol promotes tubercle, not because it begets the 
bacilli, but because it impairs the tissues and makes them 
ready to yield to the attack of the parasites.' In France, 
in the districts in which the greatest amounts of alcohol 



184 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

are consumed, the highest mortality from tuberculosis is 
met with; alcohol apparently acting as a devitalising agent, 
and rendering the person indulging in it to excess a more 
easy prey to infection. Baudron, in 1901, showed that the 
consumption of alcohol of 12.5 litres per person corres- 
ponded to a mortality from tuberculosis of 32.8 per 1,000 
living, whilst the consumption of 35 A litres of alcohol 
per person corresponded to a death-rate from tuberculosis 
of 107.8 per 1,000." 

In the same volume, page 204, Dr. Ralph Crowley 
says : — 

"Alcohol was at one time supposed to be antagonistic 
to the development of tuberculosis, but this idea was a 
'theory' based on no careful examination of the subject. 
We are now daily becoming more convinced of how surely 
intemperance predisposes to the development of tubercle 
by making the tissues a more suitable soil in which the 
bacilli may develop and grow. In the phthisical wards 
of a poor-law hospital, as I know from experience, the 
majority of the male patients will be found to have been 
heavy drinkers." 

But there is another aspect of this question which 
we have only recently learnt to recognise. Consump- 
tion is an infectious disease, and it is ill that one 
should prepare the soil for it; for, as a great French 
physician has said, "L'alcoolisme fait le lit de la tuber- 
culose." It is also ill that one should expose oneself 
to the infection ; but worst of all is it to do both simul- 
taneously, and that is the normal practice in the 
public-house. If you are to take alcohol, at least take 
it in a clean atmosphere and away from infection. In 
the public-house 3^ou prepare the soil not only by the 
alcohol, but also by the breathing of impure air : also, 
you pre-eminently expose yourself to infection. There 
are people who do not feel comfortable about visiting 
a sanatorium for tuberculosis. Even the domestic serv- 
ants in such a place are, however, found to be quite 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 185 

safe. But if you care to examine the floor sweepings 
of the average public-house, you will frequently find 
active tubercle bacilli there. We are indebted to the 
recent work of Dr. James Niven (Medical Officer of 
Health for Manchester) and others in this respect. In 
The British Journal of Inebriety, April 1908, Dr. 
Davies (Medical Officer of Health for Woolwich) recurs 
to the subject. He says, "From inquiries into deaths 
from, and notified cases of phthisis, and from the 
Registrar-General's returns as to the phthisis death- 
rate of public-house servants, I arrived at the con- 
clusion that the public-house, after the home, is prob- 
ably the most important source of infection in this 
disease. Further investigations have confirmed this 
opinion. Men, of course, are the principal victims 
in this way, though many cases have been met with in 
which women, too, were probably infected at the drink- 
ing-tavern." The public-house is a great resort of 
consumptives, and therefore of active tubercle bacilli 
introduced by their spitting and coughing. I must 
refrain from discussing the disastrous effect of the 
public-house in the tuberculous infection of children ; 
but the point for us is that the public-house as it exists 
at present is rivalled only by the tuberculous home 
as a centre of tuberculosis infection in general. As we 
have seen, all the conditions are favourable to this end. 
The wise reader will therefore beware. Personally, if 
ever I entered a public-house, I should take good care 
to keep my mouth shut, so that at least the protection 
of the nasal filter might be employed. We are now 
assured by the most careful students that the extinc- 
tion of tuberculosis — which will one day certainly fol- 
low plague and leprosy in this country — can never be 
effected until the public-house is either abolished or 
radically transformed. As for children, notwithstand- 
ing the limitations of our subject, it is surely warrant- 
able to quote the opinion of Dr. Davies, that an hour 



186 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

in the public-house is worse than* twenty-four hours in 
the tuberculous home, and that it is far easier to keep 
the children out of the public-house than to keep such 
places free from infection. 

Having thus discussed the most recent discoveries 
of science in regard to this question, and the experi- 
Practical mental facts upon which the}' are based, 
conclusions let us briefly define the practice of a reason- 
able man in this matter. I do not say the professional 
practice of a reasonable doctor, since that is outside 
my scope, though it is, I believe, a much easier ques- 
tion to answer. But what should the reasonable adult 
person do, assuming that he does not wish to pay for 
the happiness of to-day with the happiness of to- 
morrow? Now before we answer this question, it is 
fair to recognise that, as in the case of foul atmos- 
pheric gases and, much more markedly, a host of sub- 
stances which we take in our food, so also in the case 
of alcohol, the body has powers of adaptation and 
self-protection, and can acquire a measure of immunit y 
If we do not recognise this fact, all our other scientific 
conclusions will be apt to be discredited by the positive 
experience of cases where men have habitually con- 
sumed more or less alcohol and have lived and thrived 
to great ages. But though it would be foolish to ig- 
nore these cases, it would be equally foolish to assume 
that they serve as models for all of us, and that because 
these persons were capable of limiting their consump- 
tion of alcohol, or felt no tendency to increase it, there- 
fore we may count on the like advantages. 

The broad conclusion, beyond question, is that there 
is only one method of absolute safety, and this is not 
to touch the thing at all. It is necessary for no one, 
for no living thing, except the microbes that decom- 
pose it into acetic acid, and no one is the better for its 
habitual consumption even in the smallest quantities. 

As regards all forms of spirits this conclusion needs 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 187 

no qualification whatever. As regards the lightest 
wines and beers, it is necessary to admit that in parts 
of the world, such as Italy, let us say, where your 
chance of taking typhoid with your water is no small 
one, you will do well to choose the lesser evil. We 
may also admit that in the case of lager beer this 
evil is an exceedingly small one for such fortunate 
persons as certainly constitute the majority, and who 
are so constituted that in ordinary, or perhaps even 
in extraordinary, conditions they will never acquire 
a craving to go further. But there do exist many 
people of neurotic constitution, often people whose 
parents were drinkers, to whom the relation of alcohol 
is that of blood to the tiger cub. Once let them taste 
it, and they are done for, or in grave danger of being 
done for. It would be almost desirable, indeed, to dis- 
cuss at length the very obscure though very important 
and interesting subject of the inherent variations be- 
tween people in this respect — variations dependent not 
upon strength of will, whatever that may mean, nor 
upon moral training, but upon the chemical consti- 
tution of the body. There are those who run no risk 
because the drug has no action upon them at all; there 
are those whom it violently upsets, and who are thus 
protected ; there are those who like it in some small 
quantity, and who will never exceed this, parallel in- 
stances being found in the case of tea, coffee, and 
tobacco ; there are those who are predestined to fall. 
These last are probably more numerous than ever 
before; they include many of the most valuable mem- 
bers of the community, the most original, versatile, in- 
dividualised, inventive, creative — people who have 
points of view, parents of ideas, potential poets, musi- 
cians, enthusiasts, seers — the salt of the earth, the 
makers of progress, the neurotic people who do the 
pioneer work of the world. Perhaps the chief indict- 
ment against alcohol from the point of view of human 



188 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

history in general is its relation to such people. The 
more vegetable and stolid and phlegmatic and average 
the reader whom I address, the less important are these 
considerations for him, but the higher his type the more 
urgent are they. As he values himself, let him take 
heed. 

On the other hand, the likely victims of alcohol 
include the feeble-minded and mentally defective of 
many kinds. In a sane age parenthood will be for- 
bidden to such; and at least the chronic inebriate will 
be segregated. But the terrible relations of alcohol 
to race-culture, really more important than any per- 
sonal question, cannot be discussed here. 

Bibliographical Note. 

The reader may desire to refer to authorities for the 
very positive statements of this chapter, which go to 
contradict so wholly popular and even professional 
practice. The following amongst many scores may 
be commended: — 

"Alcohol and the Human Body." By Sir Victor Hors- 
ley and Mary D. Sturge, M.D. Macmillan, 1907. 

"Alcoholism." By W. C. Sullivan, M.D. J. Nisbet, 
1906. 

"Hygiene of Nerves and Mind." By Professor August 
Forel, M.D. John Murrav, 19*07. (Translation.) 

"The Hygiene of Mind." By T. S. Houston, M.D. 
The New Library of Medicine. Methuen, 1907. 

"The Drink Problem." By fourteen medical author- 
ities. The New Library of Medicine. Methuen, 
1907. 

"The Influence of Alcohol and Other Drugs on Fatigue." 
By W. H. R. Rivers, M.D., F.RX\P. Arnold. 
1908. 

Then, if the reader is interested to hear what can 
be said on the other side, he may turn to a volume 



THE QUESTION OF ALCOHOL 189 

entitled "Alcohol, the Sanction for its Use, Scientifi- 
cally Established and Popularly Expounded by a 
Physiologist." Translated from the German of Dr. 
J. Starke (Putnam's Sons, 1907). We are not in- 
formed as to the author's credentials, but it is a book 
to laugh at — if the question were not so deplorable. 
The author appears to be acquainted with none of 
the recent work on alcohol. He makes no allusion to 
the work of Metchnikoff and his followers, nor that 
of Kraepelin and his followers. In one place he 
describes alcohol as a narcotic, which it is, but else- 
where he regards it as a stimulant. In order to bal- 
ance the utterly unscientific nonsense which he writes 
about alcohol, he roundly and with no less absurdity 
condemns tea and coffee. These can only safely be 
consumed, he says, if sufficient alcohol be taken to neu- 
tralise their bad effects ! The total abstainer from 
alcohol who has drunk half-a-dozen cups of coffee every 
day of his life for at least fifteen years, such as the 
present writer, may well be astounded. Our author's 
rule of life is "always more alcohol than caffeine." As 
for infectious disease, our ingenious writer makes no 
allusion to it from cover to cover. Indeed, if any proof 
were needed of the case against alcohol to-day, this 
volume would clinch the matter. Thus in its way it 
is a treasure, and I should be sorry to lose it from my 
shelves, where it lies next Sir Victor Horsley's volume, 
with which it may be contrasted and compared. 



190 XI 

TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 

If by any chance the reader is a food faddist, or even 
if he is not, he may be already wondering at the sense 
of proportion which leads a writer on personal hygiene 
to deal with impalpable — and therefore unimportant — 
things like air and light before the food question, and 
then actually to discuss at length certain articles of 
consumption before dealing with the great question of 
food in general. This is all, however, of deliberate 
intent. The more one studies the food question, the 
less is the importance one attaches to it. This is in- 
deed part of the more general proposition that the 
more you study the human being as a whole, the less 
is the importance you attach to education — which is 
the provision of an environment, including food — and 
the more to heredity. The reason why every school of 
diet proclaims and obtains, in greater or less degree, 
much the same results as any other, is that the inherent 
factor is immeasurably more important than the ex- 
ternal factor. Whatever kind of food, within extraor- 
dinarily wide limits, you give to John Smith, he will turn 
into John Smith; he will never turn it into a Herbert 
Spencer. A John Smith is born and not made, as a 
Herbert Spencer is born and not made. Food makes 
nothing, but is made by the organism into itself; the 
nature of the self is given first. The only possible reply 
to many of the people who seek freedom from dyspepsia 
or bodily energy or mental vigour from this or that 
diet is, "Ye must be born again," and born different. 
The criticism on this dictum is to be determined not 
by whether it is pleasant, but whether it is true — not 
even by whether it ought to be true. 

But if the food question in general has scarcely a 
tithe of the importance we usually attach to it — as I 
believe will be generally recognised in another twenty 
years — it is quite certain that the cardinal and natural 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 191 

distinction between that which is a food and that which 
is not remains, and remains important. Things taken 
into our body, not being foods, may sometimes be 
merely neutral, such as the nitrogen which we inhale 
at every breath, and of which the blood always con- 
tains a quantity. That is not a food, but it is not 
anything else so far as the body is concerned. 

On the other hand, there are many articles of diet 
or consumption which are not foods, but are not neu- 
tral. They are taken, one and all, for their effect 
upon some part of the nervous system — which is, of 
course, the seat of all appetite. There are condiments, 
for instance, such as mustard and pepper. (Salt is a 
necessary food, and only happens to have a salient 
taste.) And there are also the substances named at 
the head of this chapter. Tea and coffee may be con- 
sidered together as essentially the same. 

The difference between tea and coffee depends 
upon the presence of different volatile oils, as they 
are called, in the two cases. These oils Tea and 
are not entirely without action as drugs, coffee 
and constitute the obvious attraction, owing to their 
taste and flavour. There is a certain amount of idio- 
syncrasy in respect of their action, and directly we 
venture to lay down the law it is only to encounter 
someone who believes that tea keeps him awake, but 
coffee never — and so finds it; there being one part 
of nature in which beliefs determine facts, but one 
only. In other instances the idiosyncrasy may per- 
haps not depend upon belief only, but in any case it 
is not necessary for us to do more here than note the 
existence of these volatile oils in tea and coffee, and 
then proceed at once to their essential constituent. 

One had almost added "for which in the long run 
they are taken." Observation, however, on the effects 
of hot water (or, perhaps one should say, on the effects 
of heat internally conveyed by water) strongly suggests 



192 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

that the characteristic effects of tea and coffee might 
often be obtained if their specific stimulant were wholly 
omitted, especially if the omission were not brought 
to the drinker's attention. Many an invalid who is 
forbidden tea or coffee obtains all their effects, except 
the possible effect of interference with sleep, by drink- 
ing hot water. I am inclined to suspect that the reason 
why one does not have to increase the dose of tea or 
coffee is that their effects are much more largely due 
than we usually suppose to the fact that they are com- 
monly taken as hot fluids. 

At any rate, the special constituent of these bever- 
ages is a remarkable alkaloid, a pure stimulant, which 
is sometimes called theine and sometimes caffeine. The 
latter name seems to be more commonly used, but the 
thing is one and the same in both cases, just as gold 
is gold in sea-water or in quartz. 

So long as alcohol is called a stimulant, and similar 
drugs are called stimulants, it will remain impossible 
for people to understand the fundamental difference 
which obtains betweeen the emplo}Tnent of alcohol and 
other narcotics, on the one hand, and that of tea or 
coffee on the other hand. Medical men are misguided 
by words, like the rest of mankind. When, however, 
we discover that caffeine is a pure stimulant with no 
second stage of depression, when we learn that (so far 
as I am aware) no one has ever poisoned an animal with 
caffeine, we shall begin to look at the thing rightly. 
It is curious that the pharmacologists of a few years 
ago, and one or two of them who survive to-day. call 
alcohol and caffeine stimulants without being able to 
discover for us what is the lethal dose of the latter. 
Some of the few defenders of alcohol who really en- 
deavour to argue have much to say in condemnation 
of tea and coffee. But there is probably no such thing 
as "theisme" or cafeisme." The words. I admit, exist, 
but that is not quite the same. One offers a challenge, 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 193 

then. Let these controversialists, if they wish to be 
thought honest, inform us as to the lethal dose of caf- 
tfeine, or let them show us under the microscope any 
jresults whatsoever of the long-continued action of caf- 
feine; let them point to a single tissue change, to a 
"single symptom complex worth mentioning, to a single 
berime or death. They cannot, and they know they can- 
not, and one wonders why one notices them at all. 

But it is well worth while to be sure that we drink 
these beverages under proper conditions. 

For practical purposes tea consists of two things — 
the first being tannic acid, also known as tannin, and 
I the second the alkaloid already named. Tea and 
'The tannin, or tannic acid, occurs in the tannin 
tea leaf as in so many other plants ; it is less readily 
soluble than the caffeine, and is much less readily ob- 
tained from the Chinese leaf than from the Indian, 
jthe latter, together with the Singhalese, containing 
much more of this substance. Tannic acid has no 
attractions for the palate, except in the case of people 
who like a little bitterness, and it has no action on the 
nervous system, none of it, indeed, being absorbed by 
the body. Its action upon the tissues with which it 
comes into immediate contact is wholly deleterious. 
I do not say that it is necessarily serious, but what 
action there is is wholly bad. Notably does it interfere 
with the digestibility of food-stuffs. Plainly, there- 
fore, a chief concern in the production of the best 
beverage from tea should be reduction of the tannic 
acid to a minimum. This is to be accomplished, first, by 
using the leaf which contains least of it, and, secondly, 
by sharply limiting the length of the infusion. It 
has been clearly proved that practically all the caffeine 
that can be obtained from the leaf is obtained in the 
first three minutes, whereas the amount of tannin in- 
creases markedly, even between the twentieth and forti- 
eth minutes. 



194 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

In the opinion of not a few, the said tannin is largely 
responsible for the deleterious effects frequently attrib- 
uted to the caffeine. This last is an invaluable in- 
gredient of tea; it is the same substance as that which 
gives its value to coffee, but is present in less abundance 
in the tea leaf than in the coffee bean ; it is a nervous 
stimulant of the purest kind, and belongs to an entirely 
different class from the pseudo-stimulants such as alco- 
hol. In some ways this is one of the most remarkable 
of all known drugs; it appears to be unique, in that 
it stimulates the functions of the cerebrum, the highest, 
portion of the brain, without inducing any subsequent 
reaction that can be detected. It has no second stage 
of action comparable to that of alcohol and opium, anc 
in cases of emergency it is capable of postponing sleep 
for hours, and, more than that, of maintaining tht 
mental activity as in the daytime. It may be con: 
that, in preparation for an examination, I svstcmat 
ically used caffeine for weeks on end, in fifteen-grah 
doses of the simple citrate, without any deleterious 
results ; but this is quoted for illustration, not imitation 

Now it is plain that, so far as the remote consc 
quences of a cup of tea are considered, it is the eaffeim 
that we desire, and the tannin that we do not desire 
The relative solubility of the two substances exactb 
suits our convenience. If it were necessary to extrac - 
all the tannin in order to get any caffeine, there migh 
be some excuse for the lady who likes her tea to hav< 
a little "body" in it, or for the servant-girl who keep. 
her teapot on the hob all day. But the fact is tha 
it is possible to obtain all the caffeine desired, whils 
reducing the amount of tannin to a minimum. A 
present the public taste is thoroughly vitiated : no on< 
who has given the matter a fair consideration, or whe 
cares to admit any palatal delicacy at all. will questioi 
that the fine aroma of a cup of properly-made Chines 
tea is in a different category altogether from the sen 






TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 195 

sations aroused by the concentrated solution of tannin 
which is usually offered under the pseudonym, "a cup 
of tea." 

First, then, the tea should be made from the China 
leaf, but this is of less importance than the actual 
method of infusion. It is not the com- The use of 
position of the leaf, but the composition of tea 
what is drunk, that matters. The briefest possible 
infusion is sufficient to extract all the valuable caffeine 
from the leaf, whereas there is a distinct difference 
between the amount of tannin contained after three 
minutes as compared with five. The dose of caffeine 
in an ordinary cup of tea is about one grain. The 
following hints for making tea are drawn from Dr. 
Hutchison's invaluable work, "Food and the Princi- 
ples of Dietetics" : — 

"The tea should really be infused, not boiled or 
stewed, as is so often the case. The character of the 
water is of the first importance." The Chinese regard 
as best the water from a running stream, and as worst 
well-water. "The meaning of this is that the water 
should be well aerated. Prolonged boiling makes it 
flat by driving off the dissolved air. Hence the water 
should just freshly come to the boil. If it is already 
flat, it is a good plan to pour it into a jug from a 
height, for this causes it to take up some air again." 
The water should not be too hard, and, if only hard 
water is obtainable, a pinch of baking-soda may be 
added to the teapot. Tea-tasters employ a smaller 
proportion of tea than is indicated by the ordinary 
domestic rule. The teapot should be thoroughly 
heated, "for it is only at the boiling-point that some of 
the volatile constituents of the leaf, to which the bev- 
erage owes its aroma, can be properly extracted." 

The infusion should not last longer than four min- 
utes. After this too much tannic acid is extracted, as 
well as bitter substances which we are better without. 



196 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

Further, "prolonged infusion dissipates the volatile 
oil to which much of the fragrance of a good cup of 
tea is due." After infusion the fluid should be poured 
into another hot teapot. The use of milk is perhaps 
desirable, as it disposes of some of the tannic acid of 
the tea. "All second brews should be avoided, for a 
single infusion is sufficient to remove from the leaves- 
all the useful constituents of the beverage." 

Tea thus made is delicious ; whether on account of 
its caffeine or its heat, or both, it is refreshing ; it can- 
not injure the digestion, though possibly in some cases 
the addition of sugar to it may do so; and it may be 
questioned whether there is any necessity to forbid 
its use by any one except the victim of insomnia, caf- 
feine being the only known drug which, by a direct 
action upon the brain, promotes the activity of which 
sleep is the negation. In Great Britain we consume 
about four million gallons of tea every day, and in 
Australia the amount consumed per head is half as 
high again as in Great Britain. With this almost in- 
credible consumption it is impossible for the opponents 
of tea, who oppose tea merely in order to befriend 
alcohol, to point to any bad effects whatever other 
than those dependent upon the circumstance that tannic 
acid interferes with digestion, and is largely contained 
in improperly-made tea. A writer who personally likes 
champagne and is indifferent to tea may be assumed 
to write without prejudice. 

We must not be too prolix in dealing with coffee, 
for there is a risk of writing almost without end if the 
The use of details of roasting and the like were con- 
coffee sidered. The seductive ingredient in coffee 
is its characteristic, powerful, and volatile oil: even 
more delicious, perhaps, to the nose than to the palate. 
This caffeol is, like other volatile oils, a stimulant in 
some degree. It appears to be the ingredient which 
upsets some people so that they cannot drink coffee. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 197 

The proportion of caffeine in coffee does not differ so 
much as one might suppose from that in tea, as each 
is usually drunk. That is to say, that according to 
Dr. Hutchison, "a breakfast-cupful of cafe au lait is 
composed of about one part of black coffee to three 
of milk, and will not therefore contain more of the 
alkaloid than a teacupful of tea." He, however, who 
drinks his coffee black and abundantly, manages to 
obtain a good many grains of caffeine every day. 

In order to make good coffee one must use enough; 
it should be freshly roasted; ground at home the same 
day as it is drunk ; the same conditions as to the water 
and its boiling should be observed as in the case of 
tea; and the infusion should be made in an earthen- 
ware vessel. Complicated apparatus is to be criticised 
as unnecessary, and as liable to contain vestiges of 
stale coffee, which are quite sufficient to ruin the new 
brew. No methods of filtration are necessary if the 
coffee be stirred and allowed to stand a little. 

If one is to be absolutely fair — not so easy for a 
writer who loves coffee — it must probably be said that 
some of us drink too much coffee. The oil is not 
impotent; the caffeine is certainly potent and abun- 
dant. The judgment of these cases cannot be by rule 
of thumb, but by results. At the slightest hint of 
impairment of digestion, or of the power to sleep 
deeply, certainly, and promptly on going to bed, one 
should cut down the consumption of coffee. 

For it is fair to recognise that, as the position of 
this chapter indicates, we are dealing with substances 
which are essentially drugs and superfluities. They 
are not necessary to health; they are in no proper 
sense of the word foods any more than alcohol is, and 
they must therefore be judged stringently with a ready 
eye for any objections. 

Cocoa is a substance in whose favour one is preju- 
diced, not for any personal liking, but because one or 



198 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

two of its manufacturers in Great Britain, such a ; 
The question ^ r - Cadbury and Mr. Rowntree, have lee 
of cocoa the way in the decent treatment of then 

workpeople and in the fight against alcohol. Bui 
this must not permit us to favour cocoa unduly, or tc 
assent to some of the perfectly monstrous statements 
which have been made in its favour. 

For practical purposes cocoa is to be regarded as a 
slightly stimulant beverage, closely allied to tea and 
coffee. Apart from flavouring matters, its specific in-' 
gredient is an alkaloidal drug named theobromine (from 
Theobromo, the food of the gods, the generic botanical 
name of the cocoa plant). This alkaloid is closely allied 
to caffeine chemically, but is much less potent as a 
stimulant. The proportion of it in cocoa is very simi- 
lar to that of caffeine in coffee. Apart from the fact 
that cocoa upsets the digestion of not a few people, 
its composition may be practically ignored. It ap- 
pears to be the fat of cocoa winch usually upsets 
digestion. Directly we add milk and sugar to cocoa, 
the beverage comes to have a serious food value. Apart 
from this, however, it is not seriously to be considered 
as a food. Widely advertised statements, such as, 
"there is no better food," are monstrous, and without 
a vestige of excuse. Dr. Hutchison calculates that it 
would require seventy-five breakfast-cupfuls of cocoa 
to yield the total amount of potential energy demanded 
of the body daily — obviously an impossible quantity. 
If the gods really lived on cocoa, they have died of 
starvation long ago. 

For practical purposes cocoa need not seriously be 
regarded as a food any more than tea, coffee, or beef 
extracts. Its action on the nervous system is negli- 
gible. It may possibly have some slight value, a< tea 
and coffee certainly have, in stimulating the kidneys. 

Cocoa and chocolate may be permitted to children, 
but they should certainly have neither tea nor coffee. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 199 

Caffeine is a drug, and a drug of a kind for which the 
naturally active and sensitive nervous system of a child 
has no need. Besides this, sleep is more likely to be 
interfered with in the child than in the adult by this 
drug. 

We may deliberately consider tobacco here, not- 
i withstanding the circumstance that it is usually smoked, 
! whilst tea, coffee, and cocoa are drunk. The use f 
: This is a mere matter of detail. In either tobacco 
case the result is to introduce certain substances into 
the blood, and in all the cases the characteristic sub- 
stance is in no sense a food, but a drug. This arrange- 
ment of the subject is therefore a proper one, and 
the three alkaloids contained in these four substances 
are rightly to be considered after the drug to which 
, the last chapter was devoted. 

We may note in passing the astounding fashion in 
4 which public and political opinion are guided in Great 
i Britain. In this country, w r here many or most public- 
1 school boys are regularly given beer, and where chil- 
I dren are freely taken into public houses, the relatively 
trivial question of the poisoning of childhood by tobacco 
has received legislative attention. The obvious expla- 
nation is, that the tobacco interest does not dominate 
the State, and that the adult is quite prepared to accept 
legislative proposals which cannot by any chance inter- 
fere with his comfort. 

The characteristic alkaloid of tobacco is one of the 
most powerful of poisons, a volatile liquid called nico- 
tine, of which one-third of a grain has killed a man. 
The oily mess w r hich accumulates in a pipe is not nico- 
tine, or one's first mouthful of it would certainly be 
one's last. All the nicotine in the tobacco that is 
burnt at any moment is destroyed, and probably the 
heat is enough to destroy all, or nearly all, the nico- 
tine in the tobacco that is just about to be burnt. 
Hence it has been stated that tobacco smoke contains 



200 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

no nicotine at all. This, however, is not the case, for 
the poison is volatile, and as one draws in a mouthful 
of smoke one draws in with it a certain amount of 
nicotine, in the form of a gas, derived from some part 
of the tobacco between the lips and the part under- 
going combustion. Though the proportion of nicotine 
in tobacco smoke is extremely small, the potency of the 
poison is sufficient to endow it with marked effects. 
These effects depend not upon the entrance of nicotine 
into the mouth, but upon the amount of it that actually 
circulates in the blood, just as we live not by what we 
eat, but by what we assimilate. The amount entering 
the blood must depend, other things being equal, upon 
the amount of absorbing surface which is exposed to 
the smoke. Necessarily very much less nicotine is ab- 
sorbed from the mouth than may be absorbed from 
the lungs. This is the reason why the practice of 
inhaling the smoke of cigarettes is so extremely unde- 
sirable. The habit is one of which few people can 
break themselves, and it is highly desirable that the 
young smoker should be warned not to acquire it. As 
long as one has never inhaled, smoking is just as en- 
joyable — and far safer — without it. 

The fact that tobacco is a poison is no more disputed 
by any one now than the like fact regarding alcohol 
will be disputed twenty years hence. It is curious 
that the people who argue that alcohol cannot be a 
Tobacco is poison because so many people take it with* 
a poison out apparent injury, do not apply the ar- 

gument to nicotine, which would show its absurdity. 
Nicotine is no less a poison because the adult is usually 
capable of acquiring a complete immunity to its action. 
The period of adaptation or acquirement of immunity 
may not be without its bad quarters of an hour, but 
it does not necessarily follow that the cost of adapta- 
tion is too high when weighed against the advantages 
which so many of us gain, or seem to gain, from to- 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 201 

ibacco. As to juvenile smoking, no word of defence can 
be said. The excuses or warrants for the uses of 
tobacco do not apply to the child. We smokers argue 
that tobacco increases our sense of well-being, or that 
it favours digestion, the action of the bowel, and so 
ij forth. These arguments do not apply to the child. 
ijBut though the regular smoker has every reason for 
!making the best possible case for tobacco, the truth 
■ must be told, that the satisfaction we obtain is pre- 
cisely the same in essence as that obtained from his 
T i alcohol by the drinker, or from his morphia by the 
imorphino-maniac. The naked fact is, that this is the 
'J satisfaction of an artificially-acquired, if, indeed, we 
i;j!must not say morbid, craving. The drug is a poison. 
1 Evidence seems to show that it is probably a poison 
>to all forms of life, just as alcohol and prussic acid 
<|are, though both of these are produced by living 
I creatures more or less indirectly. If close enough in- 
jquiry were made, we should probably find that, as is 
i known in the case of morphia, and as is doubtless true 
im the case of alcohol, the poison produces secondary 
I products which require a further dose of the poison 
| as an antidote to them. Thus a vicious circle is miti- 
gated, the details of which have been apparently fully 
worked out in the case of morphia, and which noto- 
riously consorts with the general experience in the case 
j | of these various narcotics. Thus one may point out 
! i seriatim quite a number of beneficial results which are 
j palpably obtained from smoking, but it has to be ad- 
mitted that these good results are essentially of the 
| nature of neutralising the secondary effects of previous 
! smoking. 

Excessive smoking often disorders the nervous ap- 
| paratus of the heart ; very excessive smoking, and 
"j especially chewing, may cause a definite form of nerv- 
? ous blindness, happily always curable, as tobacco-heart 
| is curable when the smoking is stopped. 



202 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

Both tobacco-smoking and opium-smoking have one 
great advantage over the use of alcohol. Morphine 
and nicotine are nerve poisons as certainly as it is. 
But so far as we can discover they have no remote 
irritant effects. You do not find in the brain-cells of 
the morphino-maniac or the most incorrigible smoker 
any visible changes. There is none of the local irrita- 
tion which is associated with alcohol everywhere. In 
the case of morphia there may be the most disastrous 
action upon function, but there is none upon structure. 
Thus it seems thai neither morphia nor tobacco causes 
any morbid condition which is not certainly and rapidly 
relieved when the use of the drug is interdicted. No 
organic changes being caused, the evil consequences 
disappear when the poison is supplied no more. The 
question of the ease or difficulty of stopping a drug 
habit, which smoking palpably is, doubtless remains. 
But it is well to remember the immense practical dis- 
tinction between drugs which work no permanent tissue 
changes, and those which do. A nerve cell once de- 
stroyed is destroyed for ever. Tobacco is a sedative 
to the racial instinct, which coffee stimulates. 

The obvious reply to the man who wishes to reduce 
his smoking, is that he should "use his will-power." 
How to con- "^iH"P ower j" however, occurs in the con- 
trol one's versation or writing of any individual in 
smoking exact proportion to his ignorance of psy- 
chology. Whatever reality the term corresponds to 
is certainly something very different from what those 
who use the term conceive. Even if there were an 
entity called the will it would be idle to regard it as 
incapable of being helped or hindered by external cir- 
cumstances. One or two of these may be noted in this 
relation. A physician has told us that he orders the 
over-smoker to use only a long clay pipe. There is 
no virtue in this pipe, except that it can only be smoked 
at home, and so the amount of smoking is reduced. 



TEA, COFFEE, COCOA AND TOBACCO 203 

Then, one may make a rule about smoking only after 
meals, just as the rule may be made not to drink be- 
tween meals. You may make a point of not carrying 
tobacco upon your person; you may make yourself a 
weekly allowance of tobacco not to be exceeded. 

It is said that nux vomica is useful in this relation. 
It may be the bitter taste of the tincture which serves 
to satisfy the palate, or the strychnine may possibly 
perform some remoter service. The sucking of strong 
peppermint is reported to be really very useful in re- 
ducing the desire to smoke. This seems thoroughly 
reasonable, both as regards the action of the volatile 
oil upon the nervous system, and as regards the vicari- 
ous satisfaction of the nerves of taste and smell. 

Sir Lauder Brunton quotes evidence to show that 
there may be danger in substituting one kind r of 
tobacco for another — the danger of a sudden faint, 
which in some cases may be final. There are many 
other poisons in tobacco besides nicotine, but their 
nature and proportions vary, and it may quite well 
be that one has established immunity to one kind of 
tobacco and not to another. 

The common belief that blind men do not smoke, 
and that one smokes only for the pleasure of the eyes, 
is obviously absurd considering the potency of the 
drug in question, and is abundantly contradicted by 
inquiry amongst the blind. Any measure of truth in 
it will concern those smokers in whom the satisfaction 
of the sense of taste is predominant. As every one 
knows, one can scarcely taste in the dark. But when 
one has become accustomed to the dark, as the blind 
man does, the sense of taste learns to do without the 
accessory stimulation of the nerves of sight. The 
blind man eating his dinner enjoys it as you do, and 
very much more than you would if you had to eat it in 
the dark, as he does. 



204 XII 

IN PRAISE OF MILK 

Let us, at least in one chapter, ignore the many con- 
troversies, mostly vain, on matters of diet, in order to 
consider the virtues and the protection of what is in- 
comparably the best food in the world. It may indeed 
for practical purposes be described as a perfect food 
without any reserve worth mentioning. Yet apparently 
nothing will make the public believe this. In the first 
place, we are tired of hearing the praise of a food 
which is insipid. It is natural enough that milk should 
not appeal to us who scour the ends of the earth for 
innutritious condiments wherewith to season our food. 
Having thus debased the appetite we find it hard to 
credit the virtues of a food which makes no appeal to 
the vitiated palate at all. How much wiser and more 
valuable was the appetite of any of us when he or she 
was but twenty-four hours old. Did we then com- 
plain that milk was insipid? On the contrary, the 
slightest hint of a foreign flavouring matter in milk — 
due, for instance, to the medicinal use of some essen- 
tial oil by the nursing mother — may be sufficient to 
make a wise child refuse the breast. Therefore, until 
at last we learn that hunger or appetite should be 
an organic demand arising primarily in the state of the 
blood, and not a desire for palatal irritation, we shall 
most of us be prejudiced against the ideal food which 
Nature has provided and on which she has reared man- 
kind, but to which she has chosen in her wisdom to add 
no condiments. 

The second more or less conscious objection to ac- 
cepting the physiologists' praise of milk is based on 
The fluidity ^ ie ^ ac ^ that it is fluid. The doctor asks 
of milk his patient, "Well, what have you had to- 

day?" "Nothing at all," replies the patient or friend. 
"What, no milk?" "Oh yes, I have had some milk." is 
the reply. You may hear such a conversation in almost 



IN PRAISE OF MILK 205 

lany sick-room. The nurse has persuaded the patient 
to take some milk, but of course that does not count. 
Of all the quaint notions to obtain amongst a species 
of mammalia this is surely the quaintest. It might have 
some vogue amongst the birds or reptiles, but who can 
explain its prevalence amongst an order of beings dis- 
tinguished by and necessarily dependent for its amazing 
success upon the production and use of milk? It 
really seems that, in some measure, the public judges 
by the physical state of a food. We speak of "solid 
nourishment." If, however, a thing be liquid, it is not 
to be taken seriously. Thus the presumption is in 
favour of cabbage as against milk. One may point out 
that, on entering the stomach, the solid matter which 
abounds in milk is precipitated or curdled; and yet 
further, one may observe that all food whatsoever, if 
it is to be absorbed, must first take a liquid form. The 
process of digestion is, amongst other things, a process 
of liquefaction. No liquefaction, no absorption, cer- 
tainly. 

The reader, however, will realise that I am hard 
pressed for an explanation of the public inapprecia- 
tion of milk, since it is notorious that other liquids 
have only to be advertised for the public to credit 
them with amazing virtues. A substance like beef 
extract, which contains no particle of food material, 
is believed in ; perhaps because it is supplied in a more 
or less solid form, and when dissolved is known to have 
been solid once. On these grounds one may suppose 
that powdered milk should serve to enhance the pres- 
tige of milk in general, demonstrating, as it does, that 
there is "solid nourishment" in milk, however fluid its 
form. This acceptance of solidity as a criterion of 
nutritive power requires to be exploded. The invalid 
who is dying for need of nourishment is not offered 
milk, but some wretched soup or jelly, the basis of 
which is the peculiarly innutritious substance called 



206 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

gelatine. When reproached, the attendant remarks 
that surely the soup or jelly must be splendid stuff, 
for, lo and behold, it will set when cold. So also will 
water when cold enough. There is a slight difference 
in freezing-point between gelatine and water ; but what 
has that to do with it? Is it not curious that, as I 
surmise, the making of a remark like this, even in the 
twentieth century, may still be useful. I am hoping to 
turn an honest penny shortly, on this analogy, by 
sending a copy of the alphabet to a publisher. 

Do but consider for a moment the wholly unique 
presumptions in favour of the food-value of milk. 
The only Consider any other substance that we con- 
natural sume, and you will observe that the prob- 
*°°d able argument against it is the same as 
that advanced against the probable utility of any vege- 
table drug as compared with the few really curative 
drugs of animal origin. We eat potatoes, but potatoes 
were not made for us, an obsolete theology notwith- 
standing. They are food reserves for the potato plant. 
We eat sugar, but this was not made for us. It is a 
store of energy for the sugar-cane and the beetroot. 
We eat the muscles of the sheep, which we call mutton; 
these, however, were not made for us, but in order to 
serve the sheep's need of locomotion and respiration. 
We eat eggs, but the egg exists for the propagation 
of the race of fowls, not for the service of mankind. 
I am not asserting that it is not part of the natural 
scheme that animal and vegetable species should feed 
on each other, but that neither they nor any of their 
parts were called into being in order to serve the life 
of creatures of other species than themselves. In the 
whole of Nature there is no product evolved for the 
purposes of a food excepting milk alone. Even honey 
is derived from substances formed not to feed the 
larva of the bee, but for the purposes of the plant. 
There is, therefore, an enormous presumption in favour 



IN PRAISE OF MILK 207 

of this substance as a food. Search earth and sky, the 
inorganic and the organic world alike, you will find that 
only once has Nature set out to make a food — some- 
thing which exists in order to be a food, and for no 
other purpose. You cannot say this of the sheep or 
the egg or cauliflower. 

Having made only one effort in this direction, 
Nature has turned out a masterpiece. Milk is the 
characteristic food of the mammalia, of whom we are 
the last and first. The last shall be first in the prin- 
ciple of evolution, you know. The mammalia are the 
dominant creatures of the earth, lords of the living 
world. This would remain true of them even if they 
had not produced man. The mammalian dependence 
upon the milk produced by the mammas or breasts of 
the mammalian mother is absolute. No mammal ever 
reached maturity without milk. The dependence of 
the human animal on this substance is greater than 
that of any of his predecessors. No milk, no man. 
Yet this unique substance, historically necessary for 
the evolution of the human race, now as ever necessary 
for the evolution of every human individual, incapable 
of replacement by any substitute, is still so far from 
being adequately appreciated, whether in its form of 
human milk for the human infant or as the milk of 
lower animals stolen for the purposes of mankind, that 
not only do we constantly, both in health and disease, 
spend our money on that which is not milk — a far 
more significant phrase than "that which is not bread" 
— but also we slay and are slain in millions, every 
year, through our neglect of the precautions necessary 
to prevent its corruption before use. That great 
phrase derived from Aristotle corruptio optimi pessima 
— the corruption of the best is the worst — seems to 
come fitly to the mind on whatever subject one writes 
or thinks. It is true of religion; it is true of woman; 
it is true even of milk, which when pure is an incom- 



208 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

parable food, and when corrupt is an incomparable 
poison. 

Therefore, one must offer a plea for some sense of 
proportion in cur treatment of three typical fluids,- 
Water beer water, beer, and milk. As I pointed out 
and milk three years ago, there is an astonishing 
lack of correspondence between the amount of attention 
respectively paid by the public to their purity, and the- 
measure of attention which they respectively deserve. 
As to safeguarding the water supply, every one is 
adequately, if not more than adequately, educated — 
which is more, I think, than can be said on any other 
matter of hygiene, from safeguarding the air supply- 
downwards. The greatest public alarm is manifested 
concerning accounts of quite innocent impurities in 
water. There are many forms of vegetable life, the 
presence of which in water cannot do anything but 
impart to it a small food-value. The dangers inherent 
in drinking water are grossly exaggerated by adver- 
tisers who figure wholly imaginary microscopic views 
of pure water and ordinary drinking water, the latter 
containing forms of life assumed to be virulent, but 
wholly unknown to any student of natural history. 
They most closely resemble aerial insects, and are prob- 
ably in part responsible for the public delusion that 
microbes have legs and wings. If, however, we turn 
from these fictions to facts, we find that, for practical 
purposes and apart from such possible accidents as" 
invasion by cholera, there is only one disease of an 
infectious character which water is liable to convey, 
namely, typhoid fever. In such cases some one has- 
been criminal or criminally careless, but, except in 
epidemics of typhoid, there is little need for us to 
worry about our drinking water. I should no more 
dream of filtering mine at ordinary times than of 
allowing a child in my house to drink ordinary milk. 
The question of lead-poisoning is, of course, highly 



IN PRAISE OF MILK 209 

j import ant, but it does not affect the present argument. 
Similarly, we spend much trouble in discussing and 
jtrying to insure the purity of beer. A Pure Beer Bill 
jcomes regularly into the House of Commons, offering 
imembers superfluous opportunities, always taken, for 
i making fools of themselves. And, at the time of 
^writing, a Royal Commission on Whisky is now sit- 
j'ting to discuss the purity of a notorious poison. Thus 
ife pay far more attention to the purity of beer and of 
(whisky which, when absolutely pure, slay millions, 
than to the purity of milk which, when impure, slays 
pillions, and when pure is the only perfect food — the 
only food the only function and purpose of which is 
to be a food. What more amazing instance of swallow- 
ing a camel and straining at a gnat can be conceived? 
] Lucid intervals there are even in the public mind. 
We do realise that there is something in milk other 
than water, even though it is not "solid what is 
nourishment," for we object to the addi- "pure" 
tion of water to milk. Until quite lately, milk ? 
it was probably fair to say that by pure milk the 
public understood milk that had not been diluted with 
water. True, it might be swarming with virulent bacilli 
iof tuberculosis and diphtheria and typhoid, and half- 
-a-dozen diseases more, but as long as the dairyman 
jhad not added water to it, nor taken cream from it, it 
iwas pure milk. But gradually we are learning wisdom 
; {in this respect. We know now that the mere dilution 
l|©f milk with water is quite the least injury that it can 
j suffer. We know, on the other hand, that enormous 
, I quantities of milk sold even by reputable dairies con- 
tain ready microscopic proof of the presence of the 
; ; excrement of cows, whilst about ten per cent, of samples 
i!of milk consumed in London to-day contain living and 
.! virulent tubercle bacilli. Thus when next the reader 
(hears talk about the purity of water, or prattle about 
i'the purity of beer, let him ascertain whether the 



210 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

speaker has any sense of proportion and knows what 
infected milk accomplishes in civilisation to-day. Mean- 
while, if he has children in his own house, and is un- 
acquainted with the history of the milk which is supplied 
to them, let him thank himself for trouble — say, in the 
glands of the neck — if not for much worse. 

The whole question of the milk supply may be re- 
garded by the present reader as having no direct 
bearing on himself, but as concerned merely with infant 
mortality, the crippling of children by tuberculosis, 
and so forth. This is not so. In the first place, it is a 
matter of individual prudence to avoid unboiled milk 
of the history of which one is ignorant. It is a matter 
of individual duty for the householder to acquaint 
himself with the facts about this substance which may 
be bringing disease and death into his house at this very 
moment. 1 The matter is also personal because it is 
of national importance, and in affecting the life and 
health of the community, which are the only wealth 
of nations, indirectly affects every individual in it. 

But it is also well to remember that milk is not 
merely a food for children. That which enables the 
Milk for babe and suckling not merely to grow, but 
men also to develop, is, a fortiori, still more 

able to maintain the adult. As the sole diet of adults, 
it would probably prove somewhat excessive in water, 
and, they say — but this may be questioned — some-- 
what deficient in iron. At any rate, as part of the diet 
of the adult, milk may well have a place. Though it 
be a food for babes, it will give as much strength as 
strong meat to men — and without any of the poisonous 
substances which are contained in meat and sold as 
food under the name of beef extract. It is milk, de- 
spised by the strong man when his need is least, that 
will save him in illness when his need is greatest and 

1 The best of human foods is also the best of foods for microbes. 



IN PRAISE OF MILK 211 

when, on the usual assumption, it should prove itself 
more inadequate than ever. It may probably be proved 
that milk will enable any given racehorse to develop 
greater speed than will any other food. The race- 
horse is a mammal; we are mammals, and the best 
food for us at all ages, as compared with any other 
that can be named, is unquestionably milk. It has 
lately been stated that the use of milk has come into 
I systematic employment in Japan, a land very poor in 
' domestic animals, the cow included. The powers that 
, be in Japan, having become aware of the value of milk, 
i are purposely making it a staple of the national diet. 
'j It is certainly safe to say that the use of milk and its 
H various preparations, such as powdered milk and the 
l! invaluable tonic foods of which milk is the basis, will 
steadily increase amongst civilised peoples — just in 
, proportion as the present excessive use of meat amongst 
r ! many of them will decline. 

\ The work of alcohol apart, the most deadly of all hu- 
; man diseases is tuberculosis. The relation of human to 
I bovine tuberculosis was naturally assumed j^u* an( j 
: i not long after the discovery of the tubercle tuberculosis 
?j bacillus by Koch in 1882. Some twenty years later 
N Koch startled the world by asserting that the two 
! diseases were wholly distinct, intransmutable and in- 
■j communicable. All the evidence accumulated since the 
:( | promulgation of that view, not to say before it, seems 
'j to lead more and more strongly to its rejection. If we 
j are to abolish tuberculosis, as would have been done 
; I already if man were primarily and not casually and in 
| spots a rational being, we shall have to exclude living 
] tubercle bacilli from milk, just as the living bacteria 
'i of Malta fever are now excluded from the goat's milk 
t drunk by the soldiers and sailors in Malta, thus leading 
] i to the summary and total extinction of that disease 
| amongst them. This recent lesson on a small scale, 
! and in regard to a malady which is relatively trivial, 



212 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

has been rightly acclaimed as a triumph for experi- 
mental medicine, and an argument in favour of its 
universal support. To my mind, its greatest use, were 
we wise enough, would be as an admirable working 
model of what (with certain other measures, such as 
the prevention of inter-human infection) might be ex- 
pected to follow, and doubtless will follow, the intro- 
duction of an exactly parallel course in the case of the 
appalling disease which hurries some sixth or seventh 
part of all mankind into the grave. Six years ago, 
writing such words as these, one would have said in 
one's ignorance, "Now, if only enough people see this, 
they will drop all the rubbish that politicians talk 
about, and act at once." One knows better now, but 
still must say one's say. 






J* 



XIII 213 

IN PRAISE OF BREAD 

et a little longer may we postpone the dietetic con- 
troversies for which the reader is perhaps so hungry, 
^ind may devote a brief chapter to a second article of 
food about which no controversy of any real moment 
^rages. The value of milk as an article of human diet 
,pannot be over-estimated, as we have seen. Almost as 
'much may be said for bread. It is well worthy of 
Jts name, "the staff of life." But whilst endless non- 
sense is talked and endless interest aroused by matters 
relatively trivial, the food faddist has little to say 
frbout milk and bread, which far transcend any other 
Articles of food in their importance. 
! There is a special reason, also, why one should deal 
with these two foods before plunging into controversy, 
for each of them presents to the true statesman a na- 
tional and social problem of the highest importance. 
po valuable a food is milk, so pre-eminent during 
the earlier, which are the more important, stages in 
the building up of any individual, that the establish- 
ment of a pure and abundant milk supply would be a 
jgreater national service, say for Great Britain, than 
, any, perhaps, which the contemporary politician has in 
view. As for bread, we shall see at the close of this 
Chapter that experimental biology or creative botany 
offers suggestion and hope of which the statesmen of 
phe future will certainly avail themselves, when all the 
vain controversies about taxation have been forgotten. 

A great argument in favour of vegetable food in 
general is its extreme cheapness when compared with 
jany kind of flesh, or even with cheese and r^he 
<rmlk. In round figures, and roughly speak- cheapest 
jing, the cost of vegetable nutriment is £°°& 
jabout one-fourth that of animal nutriment. Foremost 
jamongst vegetable foods are the fruits or seeds of 
pertain grasses called cereals. We scarcely realise, 



214 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

perhaps, how great is the dependence of the human 
race upon a form of grass. The most important oi 
the cereals is wheat, so far, at any rate, as YVesterr 
civilisation is concerned; and this we usually consume 
as bread. The matter of cost has been put first, not 
because monetary cost is as important a matter as 
vital cost, but because, if the vital issues are satisfac- 
torily answered, what we usually call the economic 
question is a really momentous one. It directly affectj 
every individual for whom the cost of living is a matte 
of any importance, and it will some day be seen to b' 
a matter of the greatest political importance. Thi- 
indeed, to my mind, is the most important aspect o 
all the food controversies. Individual attention to thes« 
matters is usually superfluous, often self-defeating 
and very often indeed ridiculous. But to discover anc 
obtain the best and cheapest food supply for a natior 
would be a task of the highest. In terms, then, nol 
of weight, but of nutriment, bread is the cheapest o: 
all foods. Oatmeal runs it so close as to be substan- 
tially as cheap, but bread just has it. The comparison 
with meat may be worth noting. A pennyworth oi 
bread yields eight ounces of dry nutriment, a penny- 
worth of meat only four-fifths of an ounce. But the 
different chemical varieties of food are of different in- 
herent value, the kind called proteid being supremeh 
important, since it is an absolute necessity of life. Ir 
terms of proteid, as distinguished from nutriment ir 
general, wheat flour is still the cheapest of all foods, 
and bread, though much dearer than flour, is still much 
cheaper than milk, meat, or eggs. It appears that wc 
pay the baker very heavily for his trouble, and that, 
so far as economy is concerned, it would be well worth 
while to bake at home. Says Dr. Goodfellow : "Bread 
is one of the cheapest foods, not only with regard tc 
the actual weight of nourishment obtained, but alsc 
with regard to the variety of the nutrient constitu- 



IN PRAISE OF BREAD 215 

ents; and the purchaser who expends his modest two- 
pence halfpenny on a two-pound loaf may rest assured 
that he could not spend his money to better advantage, 
except perhaps in the purchase of oatmeal, which con- 
tains slightly more energising nutriment than bread." 
If it be flour that is purchased, then the limit of 
economy has been reached. It will be evident that, as 
the population of the Western world persists in in- 
creasing at a rate which far exceeds that of the wheat 
supply, the fact that this is the cheapest of all foods 
vill enter profoundly into the real economics of the 
lext generation, which will probably realise the first 
and last of all economic truths, that there is no wealth 
put life, and that money-shifting is not economics. 

It cannot be said of bread, as it can of milk, that it 
is a perfect food. v The proportions of its constituents 
are doubtless perfect from the point of q qt 
view of the young wheat plant, for which tionof 
Nature designed it, just as the composition bread 
of milk is perfect from the point of view of the young 
nammal. Grass grows for its own sake, not for ours , 
md though, in the absence of the grasses, by far the 
greater part of mankind could not exist, yet the food 
ve obtain from them is open to some criticism. Bread 
3ontains an excess, then, of energy-producing food, in 
oroportion to its proteid — from which alone living 
dssue can be re-created. We also need somewhat more 
p at than the proportion in bread supplies. Thus, as 
Dr. Hutchison points out, "we make puddings with 
eggs and milk, and eat bread with cheese or spread it 
with butter." Evidently it is desirable that we should 
employ the methods of bread-making which involve 
least loss of the nutriment in the flour, and especially 
of those parts of it which are the more valuable and 
the less abundant. There is no question that recent 
methods which, unlike the older, do not involve the 
loss of the germ of the grain are a real advance in the 



816 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

making of bread. The so-called "germ breads," then, 
are to be commended; "Hovis" flour, for instance, de- 
serves a good word, because it includes the nutriment 
in the germ of the grain. A word may be useful 
$* colour and moisture. We are entirely mis- 
sing an extremely white bread ; the whitest 
iest loaf, and the least rich in proteid. 
Dod, but very secondary to proteid, which 
ible part of bread; thus, in general, the 
>d loaf is more valuable than the pure white 
one of the little points which every house-; 
> know. As regards moisture, about four- 
oaf is water. There should be a limit tc 
ly, just as in the case of tobacco, or — 
re serious instance — the case of milk. Ii 
ed, legal limits should be put to the adul 
lany commodities with water. But breac 
eatery than raw meat. 
)f course, a controversy about bread, bu 
• of very small importance. The brai 
md the germ of the wheat-grain contaii 
:oloured materials which will make a loa 
>rown. The supposition, then, is that th 
is more nourishing. In Great Britah 
ally a society which exists on this supposi 
er bread reform. But the truth is that . 
is a wetter bread, and you are buyini 
sue ss of water that, in the upshot, you pro 

vide yourself with less proteid — very considerably les 
— and also less of the energy-producing constituents 
Before we look into this further, it may be added tha ; 
a common opinion regarding the crust and crumb o 
bread is also erroneous. The crust is very much supe 
nor on all counts without exception ; probably becaus 
it is so very much drier. Only to consume the < 
of a loaf involves very great waste indeed. Ther 
are thus more reasons than one why w~ should mak 



IN PRAISE OF BREAD 217 

a point of eating our crusts, though the term "dry 
crust" is used almost as if it were equivalent to dry 
husk. It is dry because it contains so little water, 
which is another way of saying that it is in proportion 
more valuable. Also it is very good for our teeth ,* 
for our children's teeth. It now seems to be fai 
clear, as we shall see later, that the real reason why 
our teeth are so bad is that we do not use them, an 
explanation entirely satisfying to the biologist, who 
knows that effort is the law of life, and that every 
organ, tissue, or function which has its work done 
it — brain, stomach, tooth, limb, it matters not — inevi- 
tably degenerates. 

In arguing about the value of different kinds of 
bread, especially as between white and brown, we i lu- 
pidly ignore really interesting points — as that coo 
bread or toast is more digestible and no less nourisr 
than ordinary bread, this being still truer of the 1 
of toast called rusks ; and that biscuits are hi£ 
nourishing in proportion to their weight, since l 
contain very little water, and since the constituents 
added to the flour in making them are themselves a!- 
uable. According to Church, three pounds of bisc ts 
contain about as much nourishment as five pound; 
bread. But no ; it is the question of white versus br 
that we really care about, and we care about it wrc 
One of the great features of brown bread is its inclu 
of the bran. But this largely consists of cellul 
which the human body does not digest in any ap] 
ciable degree; and this cellulose encloses the other < 
stituents of the bran. Two dogs and a hen betv 
them were found to be unable to deal with bran ef 
tively, and a large number of observers have shown i 
the percentage composition of whole-meal bread has no 
particular relation to its nutritive value. We live 
by what we eat, but by what we assimilate. It seems 
that the cellulose is not only indigestible in itself, but 



218 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

a cause of indigestibility in other things. In short, 
the bran of the grain is not worth using. The proteid 
of brown bread is not absorbed as it should be, and 
even other foods, such as milk, taken along with it, 
seem to have their absorption interfered with. Dr. 
Hutchison's conclusion is that there is no justification 
for recommending the use of whole-meal bread by grow- 
ing children or nursing women, and that the vexed 
question of whole-meal versus white bread is finally 

;tlcd in favour of the latter. "Had due regard 
: en paid to the behaviour of the bread in the intestine 
instead of merely to its chemical composition, the 
Bread Reform League would probably never have 
come into existence." One may add that had due 
regard been paid to the behaviour of food in general 
in the intestine instead of merely to its chemical com- 

>sition, three-fourths of all our dietetic controversies 

id controversialists would never have come into ex- 

tcnce. 

The importance of mastication, so much and so 

glitly insisted upon by many recent contributors to 
riowtoeat the subject of diet, is very marked in the 

•ead case of bread. Digestion begins in the 

mouth, and the teeth are of great value in making 
bread practically useful. It is a mistake to eat new 
bread just because its consistence protects it from the 
teeth. It is so moist that it can scarcely be chewed, 
and cannot suck up the digestive juices of the saliva. 
It is largely because toast and biscuits and stale bread 
and crusts are dry that they are so useful. In the 
first place, the teeth can work upon them, and, in the 
j.econd place, they soak up the saliva. Biscuits are 
much more digestible than ordinary bread in the stom- 
ach, and stale bread is much more digestible than new 
bread. On the whole, and as compared with other 
vegetable foods, white bread is extremely well-absorbed 
— best of all when it is taken with other kinds of food. 



IN PRAISE OF BREAD SI 9 

f Everything goes to show that not only is man best 
;, l suited by a mixed diet, but that — in health, at any 
,; rate — he profits best by a mixture of diets at any one 
: i time. A great deal of the salts of bread is unabsorbed, 
! and an increase of the proportion of salt by the use 
! of the bran of the grain is probably merely an increase 
[j in what is swallowed, not in what is used. 
1 "Seconds" flour affords more value to the body than 
rJ the so-called white flour or "patents." The bread made 
c from "seconds" flour is richer in proteid, but darker, 
| and therefore erroneously distrusted. 

Sir Lauder Brunton has an amusing explanation 
| somewhere of the superiority of American dentists. 
| One does not vouch for its truth, but the argument 
1 may remind the reader of an important fact. The 
American dentists are the best, he says, because Ameri- 
cans are so clever in the manufacture of machinery. 
Good machinery means white flour, lacking in proteid, 
and making no demands upon the teeth — neither feed- 
ing them nor working them: hence bad teeth; hence 
good dentists. 

It is some years ago now since Sir William Crookes 
declared that Western civilisation was founded upon 
bread. The American reader can view Bread and 
this proposition without alarm so far as he politics 
himself is concerned. We cannot do so in Great 
Britain. The exportation of wheat from the United 
States is very shortly coming to an end, once and for 
all. The physiology of wheat in relation to the human 
organism will shortly become of momentous impor- 
tance in Great Britain. We devote enormous areas of 
our little land to the preservation of game. There wil 1 
some day be an end of that for the best of all good 
reasons — hunger. Enormous areas are in cultivation 
for the production, not of food, but of alcohol, not 
national wealth but national illth. The first statesman 
who arises in Great Britain, if ever one does, will see 



220 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

this as a truth compared with which what we usually 
call politics is nothing but impudence. The time will 
come when we shall have to grow food in England as 
extensively and intensively as we can. That food will 
pre-eminently be wheat. If we grew wheat where we 
now grow whisky, we should be doing well for ourselves. 
Means are at hand whereby the farmer may hope to 
grow wheat in the same soil in successive years without 
interruption. That promises to be the contribution of 
modern bacteriological chemistry to practical dietetics. 
Further, the modern study of heredity on the lines 
discovered by Abbot Mendel, forty years ago, has en- 
abled Professor Biifen of Cambridge to create a new 
wheat superior to anything hitherto grown in this 
country. There is reason to suppose that we shall 
shortly be able to produce wheat and other cereals 
containing, for instance, four instead of three rows 
of grains. It is on these lines that the real political 
economy is advancing. It is thus that the wealth of 
the nation will be increased, whatever be the opinion of 
the "blind mouths" for which we fight and paint and 
bedeck ourselves. The reader will, perhaps, forgive 
this intrusion of a more general question into a work 
on personal hygiene. But the real wealth of the nation 
to which one belongs affects in a hundred ways one's 
personal powers and happiness. 

Some of the products of wheat are worth naming. 
It is well, at any rate, that we should know this invalu- 
The products aD ^ e food-stuff under its various names. 
of wheat They include semolina, macaroni, vermi- 

celli, Italian pastes, shredded wheat, "force," and 
"grape nuts." The last two are excellent. They are 
whole-wheat preparations with malt, easily digestible, 
very cheap, and highly nutritious, the latter espe- 
cially. 

This chapter is entitled "In praise of bread," but 
we may well include here a few remarks about other 



IX PRAISE OF BREAD 221 

cereals than wheat ; first, because some of these are 

I of very great dietetic value, and, secondly, Some other 
because the time is at hand when the rela- cereals 
tive value of one cereal and another, viz., wheat and 
rice, promises to play a part in human history. 

Oats are highly valuable. Growing as they do in 
the north, they are somewhat rich in fat. The plant 
is adapted to its surroundings. A good source of heat 
is needed for a young plant that is to grow in high 
latitudes. Thus oats are rich in fat, whereas rice is 
poor. This is not a food for those whose digestion is 

. delicate — that is to- say, not unless it be specially pre- 
pared. There is too much of the irritant and innutri- 
tious husk in the ordinary oatmeal for use by invalids. 

' Some of the recent rolled oats, such as Quaker Oats 
and others, may be commended for use by persons 
whose digestion is not strong. The method of prep- 
aration, however, somewhat reduces the nutritive per- 
centages in the product. Oatmeal porridge is well 
absorbed, and there is no question that something must 
be said for this article of diet in explaining the ob- 

. served size and strength of the typical Scotsman. 
According to the anthropologist he is the largest of 
men, but we cannot be quite certain that this is entirely 
a matter of race or heredity. There is indeed some 
evidence to the contrary. Jam and tea have lately 
begun to replace porridge in the diet of the labouring- 
classes in Edinburgh and other Scottish cities, and the 

. products of this diet promise to be, not the largest, but 
amongst the smallest of men and women. Again, one 
may be forgiven for remarking that a change in the 
habits of the people, so great and so far-reaching as 

. this, is the sort of thing which the real statesman or 
the real economist would lie awake at nights trying 

. to find a remedy ior. When one-thousandth part of the 
interest is taken j;n the food and development of human 
beings that is de voted to roses or pigs, racehorses, or 



222 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

even, nowadays, bacteria, there will be less need for a 
writer on hygiene to make these protests. 

Maize, or Indian corn, with its products "hominy," 
&c, is a very good cereal indeed, quite worthy to rank 
beside wheat and oats on most grounds. Like oats, 
it does not contain the constituent which permits the 
making of bread, but Dr. Hutchison points out that : 
the "Johnny cakes" of North America compare very 
well indeed with good white bread. 

Corn-flour is made from maize by a process which 
leaves practically nothing but its starch. Starch is, 
of course, a food, but of minor importance, and cer- 
tainly no serious food for invalids. It should be rele- 
gated to the same inferior place as arrow-root, which 
is also mere starch, and has no status at all in modern 
invalid feeding. 

Maize is very well absorbed, highly nutritious, and 
just about as cheap as wheat. Its introduction into 
Ireland at the time of the potato famine some sixty 
years ago was a real boon to that country. Dr. 
Hutchison declares with great force that, "in view 
of these facts and of the approaching scarcity of wheat, 
one cannot help a feeling of regret that maize is not 
more widely adopted as food amongst the working- 
classes of this country." We may best respond to the 
"bitter agonising cry" of Europe for cheap bread *"by 
instructing the toiling masses of the old world in the 
excellence and cheapness of maize, and the proper 
methods of preparing it." 

One cannot keep politics out of this question of food. 
After all, the struggle for existence is primarily the 
struggle for the food supply, which has been far and 
away the greatest factor in human history as that is 
ordinarily understood. At the time of writing, venal 
(not venial) ignorance, variously labelled, is trying to 
cajole the people of Great Britain into believing that 
the absence of some tariff, or the imposition of one. is 



IN PRAISE OF BREAD 223 

roing to give them or obtain for them cheaper food. 
publicists of one party actually have the face to try 
io persuade us that a tax on wheat, though it is a tax 
m food, will be compensated for by a reduction in the 
wax on other commodities, such as alcohol, tobacco, tea, 
•ind coffee; or that we need not worry about a tax 
Bm food since these things are taxed already. None of 
;hese four substances has any food value at all, whereas 
kheat is the staff of life. Is there not something that 
jipproaches to the loathsome in the manner in which the 
people permits itself to be gulled by the absolutely 
, Inexcusable ignorance of those who attempt to instruct 
It? A man who knows no more about food than is 
implied in putting wheat and tea, let us say, on level 
'terms in this connection, may be the most sought after 
pf leader-writers, or indeed the leader of a political 
fjparty, but on food and everything that has to do with 
food he has no more right to an opinion than on the 
^prognosis and differential diagnosis of chronic hyper- 
trophic pulmonary osteo-arthropathy. If he does know 
-the alphabet of dietetics and physiology, then he is not 
jjmerely a quack but a scoundrel. 

Unfortunately money and power are not to be gained 

by doing anything real for the food of the people. If 

they were, or if there were a really seeing patriot in 

>; power, some of the elementary truths in dietetics would 

!be applied in politics. The truth about maize, for 

(jlinstance, would be taught in schools. Experimental 

Mbotany would be employed by the State, and so forth. 

JThis, however, would not necessarily mean making some 

J one rich at some one else's expense, and is therefore 

jnot politics. 

U Barley is another interesting cereal which is of very 
tt| considerable nutritive value, though inferior to wheat, 
j Loaves made half and half of wheat and barley-meal 
5jare an excellent article of diet, however. These con- 
1 eiderations show that the essential wealth of a countr < 



224 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

— its human life, and the substances which serve human 
life — is augmented by any measure which favours the 
growth and use of wheat rather than barley. One re- 
frains with difficulty from expressing an opinion regard- 
ing the growth of barley as a source of alcohol on soil 
which might be growing wheat. 

There is no appreciable nourishment in barley-water. 

Rice contains a very high proportion of starch, and 
is not particularly well digested. It is very much in- 
ferior to wheat on the score of proteid. The interested ' 
reader may refer to Sir William Crookes's book, "The 
Wheat Problem." It has yet to be decided, and history: 
will decide, how far the chemical difference between 
wheat and rice is responsible for the difference between 
Western and Eastern civilisation so far as activity is 
concerned. It is not certain that our civilisation could 
be founded upon rice rather than bread; it is certain 
that, if indeed wheat is indispensable for us, only 
science can save us in the near future. 

Rice is best cooked by steaming. It leaves a very 
small residue in the bowel. It should be eaten — as, 
for instance, in "risotto" — with substances which will 
supply its relative defect in proteid, such as eggs or 
cheese. 

Having dealt, certainly at no greater length than 
they deserve, with milk and the cereals, we must now 
plunge, it appears, into the great food question — as 
many readers will think it — which has been purposely 
kept back in order that something like due prominence 
might be given to various other matters which do not 
receive one-thousandth part of the discussion, but are 
a thousand times more important for ninety-nine men 
out of a hundred. 



XIV <M5 

FOODS AND APPETITES 

j, "Of a truth if man were not a poor hungry dastard, and even 
jnuch of a blockhead withal, he would cease criticising his 
'victuals to such extent, and criticise himself rather, what he 
tyioes with his victuals." — Carlyle. 

::(This quotation is here printed to suggest the spirit 
ibf healthy irony in which alone the food question can 
he safely approached!) 

Many readers will regard the present subject as the 
;imost important in the whole of hygiene. The food 
•Iquestion, they think, goes really to the root ;p 00( 3 an( j 
iof the matter. So it does, in some ways, faith 
..but many other matters are vastly more in need of 
attention to-day. The great attraction of the food 
iquestion lies in the fact that it directs the mind within, 
iand thus makes a direct appeal to a most unfortunate 
I tendency which is, present in all of us. When the 
' reader is told that he should keep his bedroom window 
I open if he wants to be well, he may or may not assent, 
'. but in any case he is not excited or impressed. If he 
9 is told, however, loudly and long, that the real secret 
| of long life is to live on fruit, or raw meat, or grapes, 
I he may or may not assent, but his interest will cer- 
) tainly be aroused. He has never formally said, "Stom- 
I ach, be thou my god," but, like the rest of us, he is so 
i made as to find a fascination in the study of his own 
person, and the wisest advice regarding its health that 
directs his attention to something outside it will find 
fewer attentive hearers than the most ridiculous non- 
sense that turns the mental gaze within. This fact 
of the human constitution it is which explains the 
enormous success enjoyed in our own and in all da}^s 
by the practice of consuming drugs and by food sys- 
tems. There is really no useful distinction between 
these two. In one case you are told that you will be 
well if you swallow certain things, and in another that 



226 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

you will be well if you swallow certain other things — 
whether the thing be pill, or cachet, or draught, or 
nut, or cereal preparation, matters not. The great 
thing is the use of some agent which directs the sub- 
conscious mind of the patient within, and makes sug- 
gestions of health. These suggestions cure in countless 
cases. The public, however, is an ass — present com- 
pany always excepted — and never more so than in its 
interpretations of the phenomena displayed by its own 
person. One man is persuaded that he will be well if 
he lives on nothing but raw meat and hot water, and 
well he is. The same man in the same circumstances, 
had he taken the second turning to the left instead of 
the first, might have met another friend who would have 
told him that all would be well if only he confined his 
diet to grapes and nuts. Had he done so he might have 
been well. His faith may make him whole in either 
case. In all parts of the world, the Orient not ex- 
cluded, there are thousands of drugs and diets, sys- 
tems and creeds, cures of all kinds, involving the use 
of innumerable drugs of the most various and contra- 
dictory physical properties, and of dietetic tables which 
differ within the widest possible limits — they are all 
wrong, they are all right. They are simply means 
for the employment, directly or indirectly, of the all- 
prevailing power called suggestion, the potency and 
magnitude and ubiquitousness of which we are only 
now beginning slowly to realise. I believe that pre- 
vious writers on the subject of diet have violently 
contradicted each other, and have brought the subject 
into its present state of unexampled bemuddlement, 
simply because in their study of this question they have 
totally ignored one half of the constitution of man, 
and that the better and the dominant half. When we 
have taken an article of food, have ascertained its per- 
centage composition, its digestibility by the body fer- 
ments, and so forth, we have ascertained a series of 



FOODS AND APPETITES m 

acts exactly comparable to those which are ascertained 
In, let us say, the study of the relative value of various 
Iruels for motor-cars. If man is simply a motor-car, 
iihere are no further inquiries to make; if he is any- 
thing more, we have merely settled a few preliminaries. 
I This is not to say anything so foolish as that these 
preliminaries are of no importance, or that faith will en- 
able the body to utilise its carbon if it be The limits 
jidministered in the form of diamonds or of variety 
coal-dust, or its nitrogen if administered as laughing 
Isas. On the contrary, man is, amongst other things, 
a kind of motor-car, and the question of his dietetic 
; tieeds is in part a physico-chemical question, exactly 
comparable to that of the dietetic needs of a motor- 
icar — faith or no faith. To certain of these questions 
we have absolutely positive and permanently estab- 
lished answers which are necessary deductions from 
[the most assured results of chemistry and physics. I 
Jsay this advisedly, notwithstanding what has already 
f lbeen said about the bemuddlement of contemporary 
dietetics, and the actual observations which show that 
most various and contradictory dietetic habits are one 
and all compatible with the most splendid health, en- 
ergy, and longevity. Vastly though these various sys- 
tems and habits contradict each other, there are certain 
requirements with which they all comply, and with 
; which they all must comply. There is no system of 
diet which consists of nothing but beef-tea or clear soup, 
because these are not foods, and you would die if you 
attempted to live on them, however great your faith, 
however carefully you exploited the capacity for adap- 
tation which all living things possess. Similarly no 
amount of faith or dietetic education will enable jou. 
to live on sugar alone, or starch, or sugar and salt 
and water, or even sugars, starches, fats, salts, and 
water. Whatever the circumstances, you would assur- 
edly die of any or all of these diets within a few weeks, 



2£8 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

simply because they do not contain one particular class 
of chemical compound which every animal organism, 
from the amoeba up to man, must have if it is to live, 
and which is created by plants. Without proteids there 
could be no animal life. Let us, then, begin by noting 
the few simple and absolutely unchallengeable facts 
which are known, and then we shall be venturesome 
enough to wander in the maze of actual dietetic prac- 
tice, and hope for some information on the j ourney. 

Let the reader conceive of himself — the total man, 
mind and body — as and where he finds himself at this 
The kinds moment. He is limited, so far as his 
of food person is concerned, by his skin, and some- 

where within this, as common-sense declares, though 
it is utter nonsense to philosophy, is himself. This 
total being, then, if it is to continue in being, must 
receive from without, whether continuously or at inter- 
vals, certain things which actually enter into it by one 
channel or another, and become part of it. The word 
food might properly be used to include the sum total 
of all these necessary tilings. So used, it would include 
oxygen from the air, which enters, or should enter, by 
the nose ; light and other known and unknown ethereal 
radiations which enter the body by the skin, both 
where it is exposed, and in all probability also through 
the clothes, and by the eyes; and lastly, certain other 
substances, in no degree more real than oxygen and 
light, which commonly — though not necessarily — enter 
by the mouth, and which we call food. 

From this point of view it is evident that air, in its 
relation to the body, is preciselj* on the same plane as 
the carbon, nitrogen, and so forth which, 
meeting the oxygen of the air in the body, 
are to combine with it, forming tissues and yielding 
energy. We have just as much right to say that the 
oxygen is burnt up with the carbon, as that the carbon 



FOODS AND APPETITES 229 

| is burnt up with the oxygen. Neither is worth any- 
thing until it combines with the other. The mere fact 
fi! that they enter by different channels gives neither a 
j| pre-eminence as a food over the other. Properly 
< : ; speaking, therefore, fresh air or oxygen is just as 
ijmuch a food as milk or meat; it is something that 
ft: must enter the body from without, something that 
1 goes to make its tissue and to give it heat and energy. 
I This continuously requisite food, oxygen, urgently 
! demands the attention which is its due. It involves 
1 the most neglected food question of the day. At any 
I dinner-table people will prattle about the food they 
1 are eating, recommending this^ that, and the other, of 
1 none of which they know any more than of Sanscrit, 
| whilst the food they are inhaling through their noses 
is laden with impurities about which they reck nothing, 
i and against which the body is provided with far fewer 
i means of protection than in the case of what we ordi- 
I narily understand by food. 

]\ My belief is that the principles of evolution bear 
directly upon this last question. For ages and ages it 
has been necessary for the body of man to adapt itself 
to any diet, to long periods of starvation, to foods that 
were nearly all waste material, to food-stuffs that were 
decomposed, that contained hosts of poisons : nearly 
every dietetic fad of the present day has been prac- 
tised by our remote ancestors at one time or another, 
not from choice but necessity. Many and various 
adventures must primitive man have had when he set 
out from Asia to colonise the uncharted earth. Now 
a leading consequence of this is that man's digestive 
apparatus to-day, both in structure and in function, is 
capable in health — aye, and in disease — of dealing suc- 
cessfully with a diet more various, more abnormal, so 
to say, than that of any other creature. He can live 
— making blood and flesh and fat — upon milk and pate 
de foie gras, high game, raw meat, twice-cooked meat, 



230 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

fish, flesh, fowl, bananas, and red herring, horribly de 
composed fish, such as many peoples think a delicacy 
leather, such as men on a lost boat will fight for 
oranges, oysters, grape-nuts, gooseberries, and I knov 
not what. Within certain impassable limits, every 
thing is fish that comes to his net, and not least remark 
able is his capacity for stomaching poisons — alcohol 
tobacco, all drugs whatsoever, all the poisonous sub 
stances in muscle extracts and in meat, and in decom 
posed food of every kind — with, on the whole, astonish 
ing impunity. Our ancestors had to take what the} 
could get. Those who could not stand deeomposec 
food at a pinch died, and we are the children of th( 
survivors who could. That is what natural selection 
means. 

But as regards this question of air —as also regards 
let us say, the use of the eye for reading — the case i- 
very different. Countless ages of selection and adapta- 
tion have not elapsed so far as these are concerned 
It was necessary that man should be able to eat almost 
anything, but it was not necessary that he should be 
able to breathe almost anything. Stringent though 
the selection has been in so many directions, the con- 
ditio!;- were, so to - ly, too easy so far as air is con- 
cerned. This, I believe, is why, though we unques- 
tionably have some capacity for adaptation I 
atmospheric conditions, it is as nothing compared with 
our capacity for adaptation to diet. This is why our 
requirements in respect of oxygen are far more rigid 
and precise and uniform. This, I believe, is why. with 
all our marvellous capacities for defence and adapta- 
tion, we are hopelessly at the mercy of smoke in the 
atmosphere. We are descended from open-air animals, 
not only so far as our human ancestors are concerned. 
but in a line which extends to the time when life first 
left the water. Through all these ages there has 
no selection by smoke — no survival of those who could 



FOODS AND APPETITES 231 

protect themselves against smoke — such as is going 
on to-daj. This is why we are defenceless against it. 
Despite the nasal filter, we have no adequate apparatus 
if or excluding particles of coal-dust from our air-pas- 
sages and lungs, provided they be small and light 
.enough. Our white blood-cells do their best and drag 
[.off a number of these particles to the lymph- glands 
pear the root of the lung, but this is quite inefficient, 
pnce a particle of carbon has got into the lung tissue 
itself, it never leaves the body until it is released by the 
iworm. The lungs of an Esquimaux and of a new-born 
jbaby are pearly white (when the blood is removed from 
!them), the lungs of a coal-miner are black, and the 
lungs of a Londoner or any city dweller in measure are 
a dirty grey. The muck comes in, there is no way of 
getting it out, and there it accumulates. Beyond a 
doubt the injury it effects is a most potent predispos- 
ing cause of consumption and other disorders of the 
respiratory system. If our ancestors for millions of 
years had lived in smoke, by this time, doubtless, there 
would have been evolved some system of filtration which, 
unlike that of the nose, would suffice for all particles, 
small as well as large. As it is, there is no help — until 
we come to our senses regarding smoke. 

So much for a digression, the digressiveness of which 
the reader will rate highly according as his mind is 
bound by names and words. If, however, he has been 
at all convinced that the most urgent and widely- 
neglected aspect of the food question to-day is that of 
our gaseous food, as distinguished from solid and liquid 
food, then this digression will have been worth while. 

As regards our ethereal food, the light and invisible 
ethereal rays which are absorbed by the skin and the 
eyes, no more need be said at present ex- Light as 
cept simply that perhaps the question is food 
one which will yet excite the deepest interest among 
physiologists. Light and radiant heat and all other 



232 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



forms of radiant energy are just as real as the energ- 
— and heat for that matter — which are produced in 
side the body from our food. Furthermore, energy 
as we know, is indestructible. The light, then, whicl 
enters the eye, the ultra-violet rays which enter the 
eye, all the ethereal waves which fall upon the skii 
and are absorbed by it, these do more than stimulate 
To present physiology they are simply stimuli, anc 
their effects are noticed; but they are also real, meas" 
urable entities, just as real as a bullet or a beefsteak 
and, like everything else, absolutely indestructible. L 
they enter the body, as they do, they are not onh 
stimuli, but also food materials and foods. We know 
nothing whatever as to what proportion of our energy 
is thus absorbed nor as to the special forms into which 
radiant energy may be converted by the body. Nor dc 
we know anything at all as to the question how far the 
exposure to light, the use of sun-baths, electric-light 
baths, and so forth, are really modes of feeding. Botan- 
ists, of course, know well that, in a word, plants feed 
on sunlight. All the energy of our own bodies, indeed,: 
is transformed sunlight. It is commonly thought that 
this is all derived indirectly through our food from 
the plant, but since animals also are exposed to ^in- 
light, and other ethereal radiations, some of which are 
certainly absorbed, and since no energy can be de- 
stroyed, it remains a question for inquiry what part 
this absorption plays in our food supply. Physiology 
hitherto has ignored this question. 

And now, instead of commenting on what is com- 
monly meant by the word food, I wish to introduce a 
Appetite a more general inquiry, the relevance of 
guide winch will be seen if we realise that man 

has succeeded in nourishing himself llj for 

many ages, though the words "proteid," '•carbo- 
hydrate," "nitrogen equilibrium,-' and so forth, 
fled nothing to him. In short, what, if anything, have 



FOODS AND APPETITES 233 

e to guide us apart from physiological inquiry, and 
'hat have the lower animals to guide them? 

The answer assumed by I know not how many theo- 
jgians and moralists of the old school, and not a few 
id-mongers and even serious students to-day, is — 
Nothing." Experience or science alone must decide — 
r what the adviser advocates as science. Since I be- 
ieve that such assumptions are monstrously incorrect 
nd wholly ridiculous, though not without a cause, it 
\ necessary for us to consider, as briefly as may be, 
he function of appetite in general and the appetite 
or food in particular. 

It is not well to assume, with thinkers of a school 
ow happily obsolete, that whilst the structure of the 
ody is the supreme proof of the power and prescience 
f the Deity, its functions, such as appetite, are inter- 
calations of the devil. The possibility of abuse of the 
articular appetite without which the race would cease 
5 no warrant for the argument that it is sinful, or 
ven abnormal or undesirable. The hunger of an un- 
erfed but active child is no more to be entitled greed 
ban is the air-hunger of a man who suffers from dia- 
etes, or the thirst that follows exercise. These are 
latitudes, but they are constantly ignored. Take the 
istance of fever. In this condition the body needs 
ater for many reasons : water is being too rapidly lost 
rom the body; water relieves many of the distressing 
ymptoms of fever; water tends to lower the tempera- 
ure — being immeasurably safer and better for this 
urpose than the febrifuge drugs which doctors used 
3 employ whilst withholding water; it dilutes the poi- 
3ns that cause the fever, helps to dissolve them and 
arry them away. Thirst, or the appetite for water, 
i thus a normal, salutary, inevitable, and most benefi- 
snt symptom of fever. Only a few years ago, not 
lerely did doctors regard the fever itself as dangerous 
-instead of being the condition established by the body 



284 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

in order to aid its defence — but they actually though! 
it was dangerous to relieve the thirst of fever, and sc 
water was withheld. Such intelligence and imaginatior 
as the reader or I possess will not avail to elucidate the 
argument upon which this practice was based, but I 
fancy it was similar to that of the parent or theologian 
who regards a child's liking for sugar (a priceless food 
for children) as a sign of naughtiness, greed, desire 
to "gratify the senses," or, in a word, original sin. 
The doctor regarded the body of the fever patient as 
naughty ; it was misbehaving itself, and must be appro- 
priately punished. "I'll larn ye to be thirsty," he said. 1 
The fact was ignored that the appropriate treatment 
for a wrong desire — assuming it to be wrong — is not 
to baulk it, but to remove it. Thus millions of persons 
have doubtless been killed by fevers which they could 
have conquered had the indications of nature been 
regarded as rational. This fear of water in fever is a 
sort of intellectual hydrophobia, which is still wide- 
spread amongst doctors and almost universal amongst 
the public. Until everyone regards it as a monstrous 
absurdity, it is not a platitude to suggest that appetite 
in general has a function, and that the creative or 
evolutionary forces, by whatever name they be called, 
are not in the habit of playing practical joke^ — at any 
rate, on this scale. They could not afford to do so. 

The penalty of believing half-truths is that it in- 
volves belief in half-lies, for if a thing be only half true 
it is half false. And this false conception of appetite 
arose out of the half-truth of historical asceticism, 
which it is the business of what I wish to call the new 
asceticism to amplify and correct. The general doc- 
trine that we like what is not good for us — which is 
indeed much more lie than truth, but entombs a 
strangled truth — was an inference from the fal 

1 Like the little boy who threw stones at a toad : "'I'll larn ye 
to be a toad." 



FOODS AND APPETITES 235 

:tic doctrine that the body is a rogue and a burden 
jid a deceiver ever, and the true one that mind must 
b master. The new asceticism will not be so foolish 
b to deny that appetites of all kinds — even, I suppose, 
le appetite for high poetry or the symphonies of 
eethoven, though I regret the admission — are capable 
f being indulged to excess. Much less will it question 
lat appetites of all kinds, sensory, organic, material, 
nd immaterial, are capable of perversion and vitiation, 
ut it will avow that the perfectly healthy body — aye, 
nd often the body in disease — is equipped with appe- 
te as a guide and counsellor and friend and motor 
ower; and even that that body cannot be regarded 
s ideally healthy, the appetites of which are not trust- 
orthy and beneficent. The old asceticism said, "Stifle 
nd deny your appetites" ; the new asceticism says, 
Train and rehabilitate your appetites"; that is the 
ifference. 
Now if the body displays any appetite that is liable 
) undergo perversion, it is the appetite for food, the 
dstence of which is the simple answer to the question 
ow in the world a tiger or a tapeworm manages to 
>ed so well and efficiently, though it has never heard of 
dories, or Pettenkofer, or Prof. Chittenden, or Mr. 
[orace Fletcher. I have no doubt whatever that, if we 
id not make it part of our system with ourselves, and 
ith our children from their earliest years, to deny, 
utrage, cozen, cheat, magnify, and vitiate the appe- 
te for food by every means which silly ideas of moral- 
y, the artifices of cookery, and, in short, all the mis- 
pplications of the intellect can suggest, we should 
nd in our appetites something to make the whole sci- 
lce of dietetics almost superfluous, and should rival 
le admirable and enviable state of such lower animals 
s have not been domesticated and corrupted by man, 
herein the eater eats what he needs, when and as he 
eeds it. What an ideal, and how incredibly remote 



236 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

from human practice and the hopes of the most opti- 
mistic hygienist ! And yet it is the common daily state 
of every vegetable organism on the earth and every 
animal except man, the paragon of animals, and those 
domesticated animals on whom his meddlesome, muddle- 
some intellect has practised its wiles. 

The reader's appetite and mine at this moment — 
and here the old asceticism was practically right — are 
probably not to be trusted for a moment. We have 
acquired a host of tastes, for instance : I incline to 
think, on general evolutionary principles and on con- ! 
sideration of the kinds of things for which we acquire 
tastes — alcohol, tobacco, high game, condiments, and - 
so on — that all acquired tastes (in physical matters) 
are prima facie bad, and not worth acquiring. If every 
normal human organism evinces at first a repugnance ' 
to tobacco or mustard or what not, I have sufficient 
faith in the forces that have framed us to believe that 
their verdict is probably correct. This requires the 
obvious qualification that the needs of an adult and 
a child are distinct ; but even here we may note that 
the dislike of sweet things shown by many adults (who 
loved sweets when they were little) is certainly not a. 
sign that the organism no longer needs sugar, that 
irreplaceable fuel, but is probably the consequence of 
essentially vicious changes in appetite produced by 
alcohol and tobacco. The father who accuses his child 
of greed or vicious appetite when it wants another sweet 
(for which he has no desire himself) requires to be 
told that the child's desire is an organic virtue and: 
his lack of desire an organic vice. It is he that is the: 
sinner. 

This astonishing, if not quite immoral, doctrine — that 
appetite was given us as a guide to be followed, and 
not a lying tempter to be spurned — applies urgently to 
the everyday practice, I will guess, even of the reader 
who is deriding me for spending so much space upon 



FOODS AND APPETITES 237 

rhat everybody knows and sees for himself. Before the 
eader berates me for a platitudinarian and determines 

throw me, metaphorically, into the waste-paper bas- 
:et, and find some one who will "tell him what he does 
tot know," I challenge him with his practice (1) in hot 
veather, (2) when he has a feverish attack, a cold in 
he head or what not, and his appetite fails. If, believ- 
ng that he believes himself to be reasonably made, he 
ollows the dictates of his appetite in these cases, he is 

1 wise man, exemplifying the proverb that every man 
s a fool or a physician at forty; and as I can teach 
fim nothing, let him by all means give these words away 
o the first fool he meets — the search will not fatigue 
dm — and turn to something eternal: he can buy the 
)ld Testament for a halfpenny, Wordsworth for a shil- 
ing or two, and Plato and Shakespeare for little more. 

But, in point of fact, when the warm weather comes, 
he reader throws all his principles about the rational 
tructure and functioning of the body overboard, or 
Irowns them in iced water. He finds his appetite, 
isually so vigorous, failing. Something must be done ; 
his "must-do-something" theory, as Herbert Spencer 
.alls it, having been doubtless invented within the hour 
rhen the human intellect first discovered itself, and 
laving been the source of abundant good and evil ever 
ince. Amongst the evil is the preposterous drugging 
hat has so long passed for rational therapeutics ; and 
i lesser evil is the course pursued by most of us when 
he appetite fails. The reader, then, abuses his cook, 
s rude to his wife, snubs his children, even goes out to 
'get a decent dinner." Doubtless he can cheat his 
ippetite somehow. But in warm weather we naturally 
leed less food or fuel ; and the man who will not follow 
;he indications of his appetite is well on the way to 
)ver-eating, degeneration of .heart and arteries, and 
premature senility — the beginnings of which are dis- 
played by half the prosperous men of forty to-day — 



238 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

twenty years too soon, if not sixty or a hundred, as 
Professor Metchnikoff would say. 

Next we may take the case of the feverish attack. 
Here the failure of appetite is not the disease, nor is 
it one of the injurious consequences or symptoms which' 
make a disease a disease; but it is a method adopted 
by the body in its fight with the cause of the fever. 
Yet you will endeavour to "force down" something; 
unaware that, in fever, the blood is so busy with more 
urgent matters that it cannot properly supply the 
special needs of the digestive organs, and therefore the 
stomach contains no hydrochloric acid — and indigestion 
is the result. 

If I may modify a famous passage, Nature never did 
betray the heart that trusted her. If the reader does 
T he not trust her in such cases as these, it is not 

education for him to suggest that I should try to tell 
of appetite hi m something he does not know. His sort 
of knowing is not nearly knowing enough. Monstrously 
though we miseducate our appetites, they still remain 
of value, therefore, even though, at any moment, we 
may succeed in cheating them. They are not so easily 
or surely perverted as we might suppose : and they can. 
in general, be retaught with surprising success. 

It was left to Herbert Spencer, in his wonderful little 
book on "Education," published in 1862, to discuss this 
subject in its relation to childhood. This question is 
most tempting and most important, and there are three 
or four pages in the chapter on "'Physical Education 
which should really be cited here, for their wisdom and 
insight and historical interest ; but I have more respect 
for childhood than casually to add such a discussion to 
the present chapter. We may note merely that the 
practice of trusting to the appetite of a child is found 
to work, and that no superior method can ever be dis- 
covered. I have one case in mind where a boy of eight 
years has had what he pleased, as and when he pleased 



FOODS AND APPETITES 239 

•11 his life, nothing he desired having been refused him 
■xcept on one occasion when he wanted vinegar; and 
jhe result is as admirable as could possibly be. The 
feet of this fortunate boy is thus actually as perfect 
n its adaptation as that of any animal! But it will 
:>e evident that, if you habitually deny your child or 
/ourself what Nature demands, you cannot reform your 
bractice in an instant, else you will pay for the inevita- 
ble reaction. You have vitiated the appetite, and can- 
not trust it until its right action has been restored. 
, One more consideration is necessary — a brief enume- 
ration of the factors which, though steadfastly ignored 
|3y practically all dogmatists about diet, Variations 
including even the most scientific writers, of appetite 
jletermine the numberless contradictions and individual 
variations that dispose of all such dogmas. These fac- 
tors are as follows, I believe: — 

(1) Inherent variations in the bodily constitution 
\ind chemistry. — Such variations render absolutely im- 
possible the application to any given individual of any 
.put the most elementary 1 dogmas regarding either qual- 
ity or quantity of diet. 

, (2) Acquired differences between one man and 
mother. — These may be due to habit. Feed a pig on 
-Droteids, and its pancreatic juice is found to contain 
.nainly the proteid ferment; feed it on starches, and 
;he juice contains mainly the starch ferment. Make a 
sudden change in either direction, and the result must 
3e disastrous. This observation may be made in human 
JDeings any day anywhere. 

] Besides mere habit, suggestion is responsible for 
fnany acquired differences which dispose of the dogma- 
tists. This has already been alluded to ; but much more 
? bight be said. You taste a bad egg, and cannot eat 
fhe freshest of eggs for months afterwards. You have 
raw eggs during illness, and the same result ensues. 

1 "Elementary," not "superficial." 



240 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

You are given endless blanc-mange or golden syrup ir 
your childhood — and can never touch them in after 
years. This is or may be a really unfortunate incapac 
ity, which you owe to your parents' carelessness ano 
thoughtlessness, and which your children will in due. 
course owe to yours. "Children should learn to take 
what is set before them," you say. Is this your rule. 
with yourself? You do not even allow for a miscal- 
culation. Your child asks for a second helping anc: 
stops after the first mouthful. After all, its appetite 
is human and can err. You compel the unfortunate tc 
finish what it asked for. So much the worse for it? 
appreciation of that dish when you are gone. How 
would you like to have some blundering, tyrannous; 
giant, eighteen feet high, treat you so? What a ran 
and astonishing insight into the needs and misfortunes 
of childhood half a day of such a giant would afforc 
you! 

Sometimes the acquired peculiarity is inexplicable 
Until I came across the record of a boy to whom ego 
was poison I much mistrusted the opinion of a frienc 
that this was the case with him. Yet even if he die 
not know or guess that egg was in a dish it seriously 
upset him. He used to be fond of eggs. One day, half- 
way through a perfectly fresh egg, thoroughly enjoyed, 
he had to stop and retire ; and egg, known or unknown, 
has been poison to him ever since. Some new series of 
chemical reactions has been acquired, and this is the 
result. This is a perfectly healthy and otherwise nor- 
mal man. Yet if all were like him we should describe 
eggs in our text-books as we describe toad-stools. 
What becomes of our dogmas ? "As full as an egg is of 
meat" is a truth for nearly every one, yet for a man 
here and there the truth would be, "As full as an egg is 
of poison." Here, no doubt, we have the action of the 
"sub-conscious mind," determining the unusual series of 
chemical reactions. Such, at any rate, is the explana- 



FOODS AND APPETITES 241 

■ion in cases where a bad egg began the mischief. The 
subordinate nervous centres remember the affront, and 
Mil have nothing to say to eggs in future, even though 
j:he conscious mind does not know they are there. Here 
Suggestion, whether during hypnosis or otherwise, 
Jyould doubtless correct the evil. 

I Any one who questions the relevance of suggestion 
!;o matters of diet has only to observe the facts afforded 
by the experience of any "born nurse." The patient 
jmnnot take this or that; such things "always upset 
me," he says. (His appetite is worse than useless, of 
course.) He comes under the charge of a born nurse, 
'the right woman in the right place, if ever the phrase 
s applicable ; she insists that certain things are neces- 
sary and must be got down ; and what was poison yes- 
terday is food to-day. These are matters of daily 
observation — but where is the text-book of dietetics in 
^hich their existence is even hinted at? Some years 
ago, when I began to write, I printed a series of articles 
on "Ideal Diets," following to the best of my ability 
the physiological teaching of the time ; but if I should 
describe an "ideal diet" to-day, including not a few 
Bggs, no doubt, and lauding their high nutritiousness, 
I should expect some one like my friend, to whom eggs 
are poison, to say, "There, you see, that is all these 
fellows know"; and he would be quite right. 

Two practical illustrations may be cited regarding 
the proposition that appetite is not a will-o'-the-wisp 
Hit a true guide. There are two definite When not 
itates of mind or* body or both in which to eat 
the failure of appetite normally endeavours to warn 
is against the danger of eating. 

A man should not eat any but the lightest meal when 
ie is fatigued. There is, of course, such a thing as 
lormal fatigue, which is rapidly recovered from under 
the influence of rest; there is also the abnormal or 
aoxious fatigue which too many of us know. There 



242 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

does not exist, as a practical fact, fatigue due to the. 
using up of the available food supply of the body. 
On paper, of course, we might become exhausted simply 
because the furnace needed replenishing. Actually we 
become exhausted long before any such point is reached. 
Now a characteristic symptom of undue fatigue is lack 
of appetite. If such fatigue were due to need of food, 
we should expect an increase of appetite to be a symp- 
tom of it, but it is exactly the reverse of this that we 
find. The truth is that the over-fatigued body, 
poisoned as it is by the by-products of work which 
have not yet been got rid of, is incapable of doing the 
further work, nervous and chemical, which we call diges- 
tion; and endeavours to protect itself against this 
further burden by a failure of appetite. A full meal 
taken in a state of marked fatigue is certain not to 
be utilized. It can be swallowed, but it cannot be 
digested. It is quite likely also to cause acute indi- 
gestion. Your business in such a state is to rest. 
When you have rested adequately your power of diges- 
tion will return, and your appetite with it. 

Secondly, a man should not eat any but the very 
lightest meal when he is in a state of acute vexation 
or worry ; if not, indeed, any acute emotional disturb- 
ance whatever. One of the results of emotion — it m&y 
be extreme fear or extreme joy — is to arrest the secre- 
tion of the digestive juices. We should learn from the 
hint afforded us by the fact that the mouth becomes 
dry as a symptom of fear. Along with extreme states 
of emotion there is therefore a protective failure ol 
appetite, the significance and protective function ol 
which we ought to recognise. We glibly talk about 
treating causes, not symptoms, and we should recognise 
the cause in this case. If your appetite fails, is lack oi 
food the likely cause? Plainly not: the normal conse- 
quence of lack of food would be increased appetite. Ii 
lack of food, then, is not the cause of lack of appe- 



FOODS AND APPETITES 243 

'te — and surely no more reasonable proposition was 
fer put on paper — the supply of food is not its remedy. 
F in defiance of the natural indication we force our- 
dves to eat during such states of emotion, we shall 
iffer just the same consequences as when we force 
urselves to eat during fever or during extreme fatigue. 

Is it not curious that sensible men, though knowing 
lat lack of food cannot be the cause of lack of appe- 
te, will persist in trying to treat the symptom by the 
lpply of food? We need more respect for the common 
mse of the body. 

It is probably safe to say that, for most readers, 
le question how to eat is more important than the 
nestion what to eat; and whatever we H 
ay think of "Fletcherism," we are all 
debted to its founder for his contributions to this 
ibject. It is worth looking at carefully. 

We have seen that one should not eat when fatigued 
r worried. It must be added in theory, however hope- 
ss its application to practice, that we should not eat 
ccept when we are hungry. The skill of the cook so 
isily produces an artificial imitation of hunger, how- 
rer, that this goes for little. We should certainly 
it with zest and pleasure. This is not mere hedon- 
m; on the contrary, we know that a pleasant frame 
f mind, and some degree of more or less conscious 
leasure in the act of eating, conduce to the flow of 
le digestive juices. On the contrary, pain may com- 
letely arrest the action of the digestive glands. I 
o not believe in solitary meals as hygienic. Sane man 

at all times a gregarious animal — even his immedi- 
te ancestors were gregarious or social — and eating 
lould properly be a convivial act, as our use of that 
ord suggests. It is partly the pleasure of the corn- 
any, and not only the skill of the cook and the mix- 
ire of diet, that enables us to digest so well the ordi- 
ary modern dinner. The little delay between courses, 



244 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

which at other times may cause annoyance and inter- 
fere with digestion, is beneficial if it is pleasantly occu- 
pied. Some, however, find this kind of function intol- 
erable, but the remedy is not to eat alone — I speak for 
the moment of the bachelor. Personally one is willing _ 
to commend the company of a book, knowing at least 
one individual who has read at meals all his life, and has 
never had indigestion. The book gives you the com- 
pany you require, allays annoyance between courses, 
and slows the speed of eating. It thus serves the same 
purpose as the fashionable dinner — with the difference, 
that you can choose your company and change it if it 
is impossible. The mere mechanical speed of a meal 
is an important matter. There can be no question that 
it is well to eat slowly, and this is one of the chief 
objections to the solitary meal. Except for the gour- 
met the thing itself is not sufficiently interesting, and 
so we bolt our food. As we shall see, this is all wrong. 
Reading at his meals saves the solitary eater, and, by 
putting him in a comfortable frame of mind, promotes 
digestion. The "quick lunch," which we eat perched 
on a stool in an atrocious atmosphere, glare, and noise, 
is quite indefensible. One has every sympathy with the 
man who likes to use all his time. But books are cheap 
to-day, and surely one must read sometimes. The 
excuse of saving time is thus not a really valid one. 
Consider now the physical requirements of eating, 
it being assumed that other conditions are complied 
with. Nothing will here be said of the Fletcherite 
method, as I have not seen it practised, and might be 
proved wrong in suggesting that it sounds very funereal 
and as if it demanded as much attention as the analysis 
of statistics. I do not believe for a moment that we 
need turn over every morsel in our mouths, or that 
we need be more than intermittently conscious in a 
secondary way that we are eating at all. One can eat 
and write simultaneously, and enjoy both, and there is 



FOODS AND APPETITES 245 

•something pitiable about the man who will not jump 
from his chair during a meal in order to settle a point 
m do anything else that strikes his fancy. Still, there 
'is a definite physical necessity which should be complied 
with, whether we devote the entire soul to the exhaustive 
criticism and appreciation of every mouthful, or whether 
we leave that to an almost sub-conscious department. 
!We certainly must masticate. This may be done of set 
ipurpose and on a plan — say, thirty-two bites per dose, 
giving each tooth a chance. Starvation sounds a wel- 
come alternative to this. The right method, of course, 
is to have chosen one's parents carefully — much the 
most important matter for any of us — and to have been 
taught by them to eat slowly and chew thoroughly. 
The thing then becomes what we call a habit — a sec- 
ondary or acquired automatism, to use technical lan- 
guage — which takes its due course on the application 
of the right stimulus, without our having to think about 
it at all. Such is the true use and function of habit, 
of which the present is as good an example as any. 
It is deliberately created by our higher part, which 
is then left free for its own higher purposes. There 
is something exquisitely ludicrous about the food faddist 
who does not know even how to eat. If, however, we do 
know how to eat, what we eat, within the limits of the 
ordinary menu, is for most of us a matter of secondary 
importance ; and we have more for time for living. Let 
us then see to this. 

Every molecule of food that we absorb and live by 
mters the blood in the fluid state. To this there is no 
exception at all. Whatever we consume, The use of 
then, from the most ethereal fluid to ship's mastication 
biscuit, must, if it is to be of any use for purposes of 
lourishment, assume (or retain) the fluid form. This 
is not to say that there may not be some use in the 
consumption of substances which are irreducible to the 
luid state, and never enter the blood at all, traversing 






246 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

merely the digestive tube, which is, in a sense, outside 
the body. But so far as the food by which we live is 
concerned, all that is not fluid when taken, must be 
reduced to the fluid state somewhere between the lips 
and the absorbent surface of the small intestine. The 
stomach and bowel contain solvent juices, digestion 
being largely a process of liquefaction, and the stomach 
has considerable powers of churning, so that the food 
may be as completely as possible exposed to the action 
of these juices. But neither gullet nor stomach nor 
bowel is in any way comparable to the gizzard of the 
bird. No modern bird has teeth, remember. If our 
teeth, then, fail in their duty, which is significantly 
enough suggested by their position at the very place 
of entry, there is no apparatus which can replace them. 
The stomach will do its best. We know now that its 
digestive functions are probably not a whit more im- 
portant than what was probably its original and pri- 
mary function of guarding the bowel against the entry 
of any but semi-solid material ; but the stomach has no 
teeth, and though its walls are muscular and active, 
they are thin and quite incapable of crushing anything. 
The more completely the ordinary diet is chewed, the 
more complete is its ultimate assimilation. The due 
use, then, of the teeth is a monetary economy, and a 
vital economy so far as the whole digestive apparatus 
is concerned. 

Normally, the teeth should last our lives. When 
they do not we now replace them, and rightly. But 
civilised man is, so to say, an abnormal being in any 
case. It is probable that he would often do well to 
lose and not to replace his teeth — so misguided are his 
appetite and habits. Many a man digs his grave with 
his teeth, and many an elderly person who over-eats 
would live longer if he were deprived of his artificial 
teeth. It is impossible to agree with those extremists 
who declare that we should cease to use artificial teeth. 



FOODS AND APPETITES 847 

rhey might be logical, and demand that after a certain 
ige we should have even our remaining teeth extracted ; 
3ut it is right to insist that his artificial teeth often do 
;he elderly man a great injury, simply because they 
permit him to abuse his appetite, artificially stimulated 
)y the modern resources of food supply and cooking. 
[f we were to follow the advice not to use artificial 
;eeth, more harm than good would doubtless be done, 
"or people would continue to eat abundantly notwith- 
itanding, and so would incur all the evils of dyspepsia. 

But the services of the mouth are not merely mechan- 
cal. We now know that powerful digestive juices are 
produced by the mouth, and that the food should be 
ioaked with these before it is swallowed. Food like 
lew bread, which suggests the consistence of putty, 
;annot absorb the saliva, and is therefore to be avoided, 
z^ood which is bolted suffers similarly. Food which has 
)een properly treated in the mouth undergoes a special 
dnd of digestion for some twenty minutes or half an 
lour in the stomach, during which time the normal 
tomach produces scarcely any juices of its own, but 
erves merely as a place of digestion. It is the mouth 
hat has supplied the digestive agents. The argument, 
hen, is certainly in favour of a somewhat dry food and 
he use of little fluid, at any rate at the beginning of 
i meal. The mouth should be left to supply its own 
luids, which have their special action. One is not say- 
ng, of course, that any practicable objection can be 
aken to the use of soup at the beginning of dinner. 
Ve do not suffer, and no more need be said; but 
lirectly the digestion becomes impaired, from one rea- 
on or another, we find the benefit of compliance with 
he lines prescribed by the structure and behaviour of 
>ur digestive apparatus. 

The third and last reason for mastication and slow 
ating is that it provides the condition for normally 
tarting the interdependent sequence of events which 



248 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 






will not end until the food is absorbed from the bowel. 
Until within the last few years it was supposed that 
all secretion, including digestive secretion, depended 
upon stimulation by the nervous system. We are now 
learning that the 'body is organised into a whole not 
only by means of the nervous system, but also by means 
of chemical substances which are produced by one part 
of the body, and on passing to another part, cause it 
to pour forth its appropriate secretion, and so on. 
The relation of mouth and stomach is a case in point. 
The normal stimulus of the (acid) secretion of the 
stomach is food containing (alkaline) saliva. Similarly, 
the acid secretion of the stomach, passing into the bowel, 
calls forth the alkaline secretions of the bowel and the 
chief digestive gland of the body, the pancreas. In 
order to be perfectly carried out, this due sequence of 
events should be started by the production of an ade- 
quate supply of alkaline saliva in the mouth. 

The due use of the teeth also promotes their own 
health directly; probably in the main by increasing 
the blood-supply to them, but also — especially if the 
food be at all fibrous — by cleaning them in the natural 
fashion, exemplified in the beautiful teeth of the dog, 
innocent of the tooth-brush. 

The health of the teeth and use of the jaws prevent 
the gradual involution or atrophy of the lower part of 
the face, and preserve its appearance of strength and 
character. Doubtless this is rather a delusive criterion 
of character, but it influences us in our estimates of 
each other, rightly or wrongly. 

Once the food is swallowed, it should be utterly and 
finally forgotten. If it has been reasonably chosen and 
Eating and chewed, we as conscious individuals have 
"after care" done our whole duty to it ; the rest should 
be left to the body, and should not be imperilled by 
a single thought. Immediately after a meal sit in a 
chair and deliberately picture to yourself the move- 



FOODS AND APPETITES 249 

ments which are going on in your stomach, and specu- 
late as to whether the chemical changes are going on 
rightly. At once you will feel definitely uneasy. This 
experiment should suffice for a warning. Your true 
food faddist may sometimes place himself in this plight, 
as too often does the dyspeptic. No measure of con- 
scious attention to digestion can be anything but injuri- 
ous. From the completion of the act of swallowing, or 
before it, we should think no more about the subject: 
we can effect nothing but harm by doing so. This 
is one of the many reasons why one deplores the atten- 
tion paid to matters of diet to-day. Attention to 
matters which commonly proceed without our attention 
never pays. The latest, highest, and most characteristic 
part of man (which, so to say, resides somewhere in 
the higher areas of his brain) was not evolved for pur- 
poses of introspection of any kind, but for looking 
outwards, if not upwards. 

As to whether one should exercise or go to sleep 
immediately after a meal, there is nothing of any 
moment to say. The cricketer is none the worse for 
turning out and playing through the afternoon imme- 
diately after a good lunch. Many animals sleep after 
meals, and the nearer one is or returns to the animal, 
the more likely are we to do the same — for instance, the 
child 1 and the glutton. If one has an adequate supply 
of blood, it can be in more than one place at once, 
fortunately. If it be defective, the digestive demand 
for it may leave the brain inadequately supplied, so that 
we tend to sleep. Thus there are many reasons, and 
some of them perfectly good ones, why people of very 
various ages and habits tend to sleep after meals. But 
a man should be hardly pleased to observe any such 
tendency in himself. 

1 Not that the normal child is a glutton, but that for 
different reasons, both child and glutton happen to be, for 
once, classed together, as nearer to the animal. 



250 XV 

THE USE OF MEAT 

The "simple straightforward" questions to which igno- 
rant people return positive answers cannot be posi- 
tively answered here, the writer's knowledge being 
insufficient; but it is possible to state certain known 
facts regarding the use of flesh as food which will help 
us in time to close correctly the long vegetarian con- 
troversy. 

The word vegetarianism, as commonly used, is an 
utterly foolish one. The food which makes and is made 
by cows — that is to say, milk — is surely not a vegeta- 
ble; nor yet are those very young chickens which we 
call eggs. But where is the human vegetarian who 
takes neither eggs nor milk? Wherever he is, he most 
probably has one foot in the grave, or might as well 
have both. Avoiding, then, these deceptive and useless 
phrases, let us first note a few of the common opinions 
which are mere foolishness in the eyes of science. 

There is no warrant whatever for the belief that 
because what we call meat is muscle tissue, it therefore 
The colour has a special service for muscular strength, 
test and The vegetarian hippopotamus has nothing 

to learn from Sandow. It was similarly 
thought that blood must be the best food for persons 
suffering from anaemia, but this is conspicuously untrue, 
since blood is extremely indigestible even by the healthy, 
let alone the anaemic stomach. There is also an extraor- 
dinary superstition to the effect that since blood is 
red, red substances in general may be counted upon to 
make blood. For many generations red wines, of all 
shades, have enjoyed a special reputation in this con- 
nection. This has no basis whatever in fact. The red 
colouring matter of the wine is totally different from 
the haemoglobin of the blood, and actually has no food 
value of any kind, whether for the blood or for any 
other tissue. In the case of red meat, the superstition 



THE USE OF MEAT 251 

is no less absurd. The colouring matter of such meat 
is not haemoglobin; if it were haemoglobin it would 
require to be broken up for purposes of digestion ; and 
further, if it were haemoglobin, it would be utterly 
destroyed by the process of cooking. The substance 
which gives its colour to what we call butcher meat is 
quite its least important constituent. 

This touching faith and interest in redness, however, 
which is perhaps the sign of an artistic tendency 
ludicrously misdirected, has long afforded and still 
affords great opportunities to certain kinds of doctors, 
qualified quacks, or else mere repeaters of what they 
hear. Highly successful practitioners exist, especially 
in the great capitals and in health resorts, whose depth 
and rarity of knowledge is expressed in their choice of 
wines for their patients : "Ah, no, my dear lady, white 
wines should not have been prescribed for you. It is 
my experience that in such cases as yours, where the 
digestion is so delicate, only the most carefully chosen 
red wine is of value. I am so glad you consulted me on 
this point." All this is quackery. Nothing is known 
as to the relative values of red and white wines, and 
very little indeed as to the relative use of different kinds 
of alcoholic liquors. The doctor who professes to a 
knowledge of the uses of tint and bouquet and "charac- 
teristic ethers" and so forth in this or that wine or 
spirit, has no exact experience to refer to, no experi- 
ments in the laboratory, and no statistics. The only 
truth in what he says is that he is glad of the patient's 
visit. He would have been gladder still of the fee with- 
out the visit. Members of the medical profession are 
not allowed to say this sort of thing. If they prefer not 
to go gagged, they must refrain from practice, as the 
present writer does. 

It would not be fair to say that this kind of humbug, 
which is really only a subtle form of theft, can be 
detected in the prescribing of meat of this or that 



252 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

colour. Here it is merely a case of accepting tradi- 
tional belief without inquiry, and as every human being 
does this at some time or other, we cannot afford to 
throw stones. Nevertheless, it is the case that prac- 
tically nothing is known, and certainly nothing at all 
of any practical importance, regarding the relative 
values of meats of various kinds, except in so far as 
one may be more or less fat than another. And the 
doctor who differentiates between beef and mutton, 
between white meat and red meat, between one kind of 
game and another, has absolutely no scientific evidence 
in his support. Doubtless different muscles have fibres 
of different size and length, and this affects their diges- 
tibility, but the colour test of food and drink in general 
is pure nonsense. 

The humanitarian objection to meat-eating cannot 
be entered into here. Apart from this, we find two great 
parties, violently opposed, and, as usual in such cases, 
we may find the truth between them. On the one hand, 
there is what we may call the roast beef of old England 
Roast beef party, who think that the Empire is built 
and empire upon beef. Remembering the saying at- 
tributed to Napoleon, "Ah, those English mothers," I 
should rather be inclined to assert that empires are 
built upon milk, if any food at all is to be regarded 
as their foundation. And after milk, wheat certainly. 
This belief in meat, under which term we may include all 
kinds of muscle used as food, whether the muscle of 
mammals or birds or fish, is highly popular ; not for 
a moment because public opinion has investigated the 
scientific evidence for it and found it valid, but simply 
because meat is a tasty food. It is the fact that the 
flavouring matters in meat, and especially in butcher 
meat, have a very marked effect upon the nerves of 
taste. The brown substance formed on the outside of 
a "roast" is one of the most intense of all known stimu- 
lants of this sense. Furthermore, the experiments of 



THE USE OF MEAT 253 

) 

£>awlow show that the flavouring matters of meat call 
forth the gastric juices more efficiently than any other 
Substance that can be swallowed. The popularity and 
reputation of meat thus depend really upon the fact 
that this food is grateful to the senses and to the 
stomach. The evidence as to its physiological utility 
is quite another story. 

But the facts just noted are certainly very good 
arguments, so far as they go, in favour of the view 
that muscular tissue is probably a natural food for 
man. The mere fact that its flavouring matters stimu- 
late so pre-eminently the nerves of the mouth and nose 
and stomach offers very strong presumption in favour 
of the view that the human body has been adapted by 
long ages of evolution to this diet, in part at any rate. 
We shall have to note the paradoxical fact that not 
Dne of the substances which give meat its attractiveness 
to the senses is of the smallest food value, and that 
the actually nutritive constituent of muscular tissue, 
whether "flesh, fish, or fowl," is a white, tasteless, odour- 
less substance, no more attractive to the senses than 
ivhite of egg, of which it may be described, rather 
ioosely, as a variety. Muscle undoubtedly contains 
some useful salts, and we know that vegetarian animals, 
mlike carnivorous animals, require to obtain salt from 
Dther sources than their ordinary food. But the chief 
ind essential food constituent of all muscular tissue 
whatever is simply its albumen or proteid, and all the 
forms of this great food staple are, in their pure state, 
is insipid, odourless, and free from colour as the typical 
ilbumen which we find, liquid or solid, in the white of a 
raw or a cooked egg. Everything which really tempts 
is to eat meat has the whole of its functions described 
n that phrase — apart from its stimulation of the gas- 
tric secretion, it is of no more value in itself than the 
jam in which a powder is concealed, and plays precisely 
the same part. 



254 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 






This fact throws an interesting light upon the ex- 
traordinary delusion and practice of extracting from 
Beef muscle all these "extractives," throwing 

extract away the food, and declaring this extract 

to contain the "essence" of the meat. These beef 
extracts are absolutely destitute of food value, as has 
been proved by chemical analysis and by physiological 
experiment, not once but a thousand times. 1 They are 
tasty, however, and we are cheated by them, as we 
always are by anything that flatters our senses. 

In the papers of the very morning on which I write, I 
see a blazing advertisement of a meat extract, headed 
"for children who dislike meat." The first sentence 
runs as follows : "Many mothers experience considera- 
ble trouble with their children owing to their dislike for 
meat, a fancy which as a rule only time will eradicate, 
persuasion being almost useless." Children are not 
under discussion in the present work, but what has 
already been said in general on the function of appetite 
will suggest to the wise reader of this advertisement 
the truth — that there is probably very good reason 
for the child's dislike of meat, which should be most 
carefully respected and regarded. The second sentence 
is as follows : "Meat is such an essential part of a 
child's diet that if it be omitted on account of a little 
idiosyncrasy of the childish palate, a serious loss of 
strength and vitality is likely to occur." The comment 
on this is that meat is in no sense an essential part of 
a child's diet; that probably the less meat it has the 
better; that the so-called idiosyncrasy is a wise provi- 
sion of the child's body ; and that, from the omission of 
meat, a serious loss of strength and vitality is the last 
thing that is likely to occur. Of the next sentence we 
must approve without qualification. It is sound physi- 
ology and sound psychology, and cannot be too widely 

1 Animals fed on beef extract die of starvation as quickly 
as animals not fed at all. 



THE USE OF MEAT 255 

believed — "On the other hand, food taken by a child 
under compulsion is seldom properly assimilated, and 
is little likely to be of any benefit." 

We are then informed that "medical experience, how- 
ever, has found an easy way out of the difficulty. Doc- 
tors are now ordering ... to be added to the little one's 
milk and bread and milk. Only a tiny quantity should 
be used — one-eighth to one-quarter of a teaspoonful to 
half a pint of milk. The results thus obtained are 
very satisfactory, for not only does the child absorb 
all the meat that is necessary for its proper sustenance," 
&c. This is very true, for from this beef extract the 
child absorbs no meat whatever, and that is all that is 
necessary for its proper sustenance. I note, in passing, 
that this is only one of fifty cases, from one point of 
view amusing enough, in which proprietary prepara- 
tions that are of no value at all are recommended to 
be taken with milk. The milk does the good, and A, B, 
or C gets the credit. 

I recommend as specially relevant to the firm respon- 
sible for this advertisement the remark of Baron Liebig 
himself: "Meat extract cannot make us strong, but it 
makes us aware of our strength." It is a stimulant 
and a condiment, and nothing more ; but a child should 
have no need of either — nor indeed should any one. 
If we had a modicum of sense we should learn from 
Nature in this respect. With all her variety, she pro- 
duces one substance, and only one, which is designed 
as a food, and that is milk. This contains no condi- 
ments, no flavouring matter, and no stimulants. It is 
the only perfect food, incomparably the best food that 
exists for young or old, in health or in disease. To 
add highly flavoured material to the food of a child, 
or of an adult, is directly to deny this plain and con- 
sistent indication of nature. 

Speaking of beef extracts, our leading authority on 
diet says, "Being neither tissue-builders nor energy- 



256 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

producers, they cannot be regarded as foods." This 
is not to say that in the case of adults, who are our 
special study here, these extractives of meat may not 
have some little value — usually abused — as accessories 
of diet, though they are in all cases superfluous in 
health. They are simply condiments, and in general 
condiments should be avoided. Nearly every member of 
the well-to-do classes eats too much, and condiments are 
simply a means of cheating his appetite to that end. 
In the attempt to be absolutely fair, I have formerly 
stated that beef extract may be useful in that it per- 
suades us to drink hot water, but in all probability the 
thirst it creates is merely proportioned to the need for 
diluting and aiding the excretion of the poisons of 
which it consists, so that I doubt whether this result is 
worth attaining. I have also stated that since meat 
extract is the most powerful known stimulant of the 
secretion of the stomach, and a great appetiser, there 
is some sense in beginning a dinner with a clear soup, 
which is simply a meat extract. But since I wrote this, 
the work of Fletcher and Chittenden and many others 
has proved that, in general, our dinners are far too 
large, and that the last thing we need is an artificial aid 
to appetite. 

These remarks may have some little effect, but the 
commercial interests which they tend to injure are of 
no small power, and I have long given up supposing 
that to publish the truth about alcohol, or meat extract, 
or the food value of cocoa, is forthwith to dispose of 
the current superstitions, carefully nurtured and fos- 
tered as these are from day to day by interested per- 
sons. 

It must really be granted without reserve to the vege- 
tarian party — or, rather, the anti-flesh-food party- - 
that, quite apart from any humanitarian or ethical 
considerations, the consistent trend of dietetic and 
physiological inquiry for several years past has been 



THE USE OF MEAT 257 

In their favour. Probably they take a half truth for a 
ijwhole truth, but it is certainly a half truth at any rate 
[[that meat is not in any way a necessary The recent 
item of human diet, and that very many of trend 
jjis eat far too much of it. It is a delusion, against meat 
jjnow proved to be such, that meat is necessary for the 
,,oian who does hard physical work. As for intellectual 
Work, I have formerly quoted the case of Herbert 
[Spencer, who tried vegetarianism for several months, 
pad to give it up, and even had to destroy all he had 
Written during the vegetarian period, because it was 
jso lacking in energy! I do not doubt that this was 
[true for him: it is quite natural that the absence of 
ithe accustomed stimulant substances found in muscular 
jjtissue should have such an effect. But it is only fair to 
ibbserve that Mr. Bernard Shaw, whose intellectual out- 
ejput is certainly not lacking in energy, eats no flesh- 
jfood. If he suddenly took to it, I daresay he might 
.suffer in certain ways, just as Herbert Spencer, aban- 
doning it, did in others ; but his case shows that flesh- 
;ifood is no more necessary for intellectual than it is 
(for physical work. 

i At the time of writing, perhaps the latest contribu- 
tion to this subject is to be found in a series of papers 
^published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh for 1907, and embodying the results of work 
jione in the physiological laboratory of the University 
,pf that city. They are concerned with the action of 
Ik meat diet upon the rat, in respect of various func- 
tions, such as the development of the skeleton, fertility, 
•knd the performance of lactation. This last is of 
fecial interest, since it may possibly bear, I think, upon 
pat incapacity to nurse their children which is a most 
lamentable and apparently increasing fact regarding 
the mothers of the most prosperous classes in civilised 
Societies. One of these papers appears to prove quite 
Conclusively that the progeny of meat-fed rats are 



258 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

usually poorly developed, and show a high mortality i 
early life, and that the bones of the young rats who: 
parents were meat-fed, and who, after birth, we; 
themselves meat-fed, offer lamentable contrast to tl 
"control rats," which were fed on an "exclusively brea< 
and-skim-milk diet." The observations were made c 
no less than a hundred meat-fed rats. It may be sai 
that the whole bony system of such rats is diseased — tl 
skull, ribs, spine, long bones, and all. The evidence < 
the disease is extremely definite, being both microscop 
and macroscopic. 

The next paper compares the consequences of tl 
opposed methods of feeding on fertility and lactatioi 
and the result is immensely favourable to those ra 
which were fed on bread and milk, as compared wil 
those which were fed on an exclusive ox-flesh dietar 
A third paper, dealing with an allied subject, is equal 
definite in its conclusions. It may be here suggest- 
that possibly these studies have a bra ring upon the lc 
birth-rate characteristic of the most prosperous i 
of society, by whom so much meat is consumed. 

One of the workers referred to, Dr. Chalmers W, 
son, has since done some work which has already be 
referred to. and may be recalled lure, though it does r : 
deal directly with the eating of meat. Hims< If a Sco - 
man, belonging to the race which excels in the a vera I 
physical size of its members — or used so to excel — i 
has studied, also in the rat. the value of porridge, wh l 
has until lately been the Scotsman's characteristic fo . 
It has been lately shown, for Edinburgh, that nowadi s 
porridge is largely being replaced by other f 
the diet of the poorer classes, and we can scare 
to wonder whether this fact is related to the appall g 
physical state of Edinburgh children lately revealed. 

The research in question opens up an almost ur I 
plored field — the effect of food, not merely as fo©< -D 
the ordinary sense, but as a stimulant and helper o 



THE USE OF MEAT 259 

the development of various glands of the body, the right 
activity of which is necessary to its health. Perhaps 
Jthe most important of these is the thyroid gland, which 
I situated in the neck, just below the voice-box, and 
[iefective development of which is known to be responsi- 
Dle for a well-marked form of idiocy; whilst defect of 
its function in later life causes an equally well-marked 
disease. Now, when the thyroid gland is studied under 
the naked eye and the microscope, in large numbers of 
animals which differ from one another, so far as the 
fairest selection can make out, only in this respect, that 
die one set had porridge and the others had not, there 
s found to be a constant and quite unmistakable dif- 
ference in the thyroid glands of the two sets of animals. 
The gland of the porridge-fed animal is not merely 
iarge, but under the microscope its cells show every sign 
fcdiich tells the physiologist that they are in a state 
bf vigorous secretory activity. The contrast with the 
base of meat-fed animals is extremely conspicuous. It 
s, perhaps, too soon yet to say that porridge has been 
conclusively proved to have a specific stimulant effect 
^ipon what is, perhaps, the most important of all glands 
for the proper development of the body, but the facts 
look very like it. 

j The reader may be inclined to think, especially if he 
he a vegetarian already, or predisposed in favour of 
Vegetarianism on account of its humanity as compared 
with the killing of animals for their flesh, that such 
researches as those just quoted surely settle the matter. 
But, unfortunately for all of us — and not least for a 
writer, since the public prefers dogmatic and decided 
opinions — the matter is not yet settled. We must look 
at some facts in favour of meat before anything like a 
pumming-up is attempted. 

The familiar argument of the uric-acid school against 
peat may be easily dismissed. The argument is that an 
fexcess of the undesirable substance called uric acid is 



260 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

present in the body in gout and various other disorders, 
and that since (as is asserted) this uric acid must 
Facts in plainly be derived from the foods, such as 

favour of meat, which are known to be the sources of 
flesh food n 9 a n such foods should be avoided. As I 
have pointed out again and again, and as has been 
lately observed by Dr. Hale White, 1 there is no warrant 
for the assertion that the characteristic uric acid of 
gout is a product of the food at all. It is, indeed, the 
product of morbid changes in the tissues of the body, 
and there is no kind of proof that to withhold the foods 
which normally break down into uric acid is to correct 
the morbid chemistry of the living tissues: The whole, 
argument is founded in a staring fallacy. Further, the. 
class of foods that produce uric acid are, in any case,- 
absolutely essential for life — not necessarily in the quan-. 
tities often taken, nor necessarily in the form of meat, 
of course, but necessarily in some degree and in some- 
form or other. A further point, which I have taken 
occasion to allude to before, is that the experience of 
all the carnivorous animals disposes of tins argument. 
The tiger surely shows few enough signs of gout 01 
uric-acid-aemia, so-called, yet his diet is such as to yield 
this acid in large quantities. In truth the symptom.' 
of gout and its allies are not really due to uric acic 
at all. 

Professor Richet, of Paris, seems to have shown, ir 
the case of the dog, that meat (taken raw, of course) 
may be a most valuable food. Consumptive dogs retail 
their appetite in spite of the disease, and frequently 
recover when they are fed exclusively on raw meat 
On the other hand, though healthy dogs can thrive 01 
cooked meat alone, consumptive dogs so fed rapidly los 
ground. The question of the cooking of meat will b 
discussed in a moment. j I 

1 In his "Plea for Accuracy of Thought in Medicine." 
address delivered to the British Medical Association in 19c 



THE USE OF MEAT 261 

Meanwhile it may be provisionally stated as our con- 
f 1 elusion that the recent study of meat, whilst disproving 
*j the notion that it is essential for the highest muscular 
p ;or mental vigour, does not prove that the adult would 
jbe better without it altogether. That a mixed diet is 
-best for man remains perhaps the only certain fact of 
^dietetics so far as the choice of foods is concerned. But 
;most prosperous people tend to eat too much, and meat 
ioffers special temptations in this respect, owing to its 
^flavour and its effect, already noted, upon the digestive 
| juices. Further, it offers great opportunities to the 
jjcook, who is valued in proportion as he or she can 
succeed in cheating the appetite. At any rate, probably 
3 !once a day is quite often enough to eat meat. 

Meat is cooked for aesthetic reasons, by force of cus- 
tom, and in order to soften and loosen the connective 
Itissue between the muscle fibres. The process makes it 
'Imore digestible so far as the action on the connective 
^tissue is concerned, but less digestible so far as the 
^nutritive muscle tissue itself is concerned. Undoubtedly, 
fithen, the best way in which to eat meat The cooking 
Vust be that well recognised as the best of meat 
if or the invalid, viz., raw, but well chopped up or actually 
Wated. The tiger does not need this aid, for he has 
jgood teeth and the sense to use them, whilst most of 
is have neither. Short of this proceeding, it is at any 
rate much better to cook only lightly such meat as we 
do consume. Meat is less digestible roasted than boiled. 
All forms of meat, without exception, are costly. In 
this respect — as in respect of alcohol — it is probable 
{that prosperity is not necessarily an unmixed boon. 
'JWe have noticed the replacement of porridge by meat 
jbo a large extent in Scotland, and the most recent sta- 
tistics, collected by the Board of Agriculture, suggest 
that in England there is now consumed twice as much 
Ineat per head as there was twenty years ago. The 
proportion of meat to bread has risen so much because 



: 



262 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of increased prosperity. It is one thing to have money 
and another to spend it wisely. 

Muscular tissue is essentially the same whether it be 
red or white, derived from mammal or fish or bird. 
The advantages of fish as against meat are worth 
noting. Having less flavour, it is less likely to cheat 
the appetite. It is relatively cheap. The variations in 
price have no relation to food value; we pay simply , 
for flavour. Reckoning by food value, the herring is - 
the cheapest and best of all fish-foods. Fish do not 
contain an exceptional amount of phosphorus, popular 
opinion notwithstanding. The most easily digested fish 
are those which contain least fat — cod, whiting, and 
haddock. 

The disadvantages of a total exclusion of muscular 
tissue from the diet — i.e., the disadvantages of what is 
usually understood by vegetarianism — are that more 
strain than they were probably designed to bear is 
thrown upon the digestive organs ; vegetable food is 
more difficult to digest, and less stimulant to the diges- 
tive juices. In most of its forms it is much bulkier than 
animal food. We may compare the size of the abdomen 
of, say, a greyhound, with that of a cow. The vege- 
tarian almost inevitably tends to have a large abdomen, 
since his diet is relatively so bulky. He lias to pay 
more in digestive energy and in house-room, so to say. 
but less in money. 

The familiar truth is worth repeating that, in the 
last resort, all animals without exception live upon, 
Vegetable vegetables, which alone are capable of living 
diet in upon sunlight and inorganic matter. In the 

general absence of scientific developments hitherto 

far below the horizon, this is a fact which the true 
patriot or statesman can never forget, vegetable Kfc 
being thus a source of real wealth for any nation. The 
question for us here is the extent to which mankind mav 
use the vegetable world directly as a source of food, the 



THE USE OF MEAT 263 

Jternative being to use it indirectly by consuming 
mimal products, such as meat, milk, arid eggs — which 
ire one and all transmuted grass. 

The chemical study of vegetable foods warrants the 
)roposition that, to say the least, man should not be a 
)ure carnivore. If the choice were necessary between 
i vegetable diet and a diet of muscle, we should very 
oon discover by trial that the former demanded our 
uffrage, if for no other reason than that the various 
:lasses of food constituents, proteids, fats, and carbo- 
lydrates (sugar and starch) are far better represented 
n the vegetable world than they are in muscular tissue. 
|f, indeed, we were confined to the animal world alone, 
mre carnivorousness would be found to fail. Only by 
he use of milk could we succeed. 

On the whole, vegetable food is less easily digested 
han animal food. The digestive apparatus of a her- 
)ivorous animal is much more complicated xhediges- 
md effective than that of a carnivore, and tionof vege- 
he herbivore requires to spend more of its table food 
ime in eating. We have the advantage over the ox 
;hat we can cook our vegetable food, this process mark- 
idly increasing its digestibility ; whereas, on the whole, 
t diminishes the digestibility of animal food. In a 
;ense this is rather unfortunate, because it is animal 
bod that more commonly conveys disease, in the form 
)f microbes, which cooking kills. In the study of the 
rreat vegetable staple, bread and its allies, we have seen 
;hat, apart from the question of cooking, human intel- 
igence has already done a great deal to enhance the 
value of vegetable food, and will do much more. It is 
very far from necessary that even the thorough-going 
vegetarian should spend anything like as much time in 
mating as do the lower herbivores. 

It is possible to confine the issue between vegetable 
uid animal food to a single point. So far as fat is con- 
cerned, there appears to be little to choose between them 



264 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

except that vegetable fat is very much cheaper. So far 
as the carbohydrates, starch and sugar, are concerned, 
Vegetable vegetable food has the verdict without any 
proteid question. It is only as regards the pro- 

teids that any substantial argument in favour of flesh • 
as against vegetable food can be adduced. And here 
chemical analysis pronounces in favour of flesh. Even 
wheat, or pea-flour, is far inferior to even the fattest 
meat, not to say lean meat, on the score of proteid. 
The question, then, really comes to be, how much proteid 
do we require, it being granted that some quantity, at 
any rate, of this kind of diet is necessary for life. The 
older school of dietetics stated a proteid figure which 
substantially involved a verdict against vegetarianism, 
but the newer school, with which the name of Professor 
Chittenden is associated, and to whose views we must 
return, threatens so radically to modify the older view 
that the customary argument against vegetarianism 
can no longer be confidently put forth. Thus the trend 
against meat, already referred to, receives support on 
general dietetic grounds quite apart from any question 
as to the relative merits of animal and vegetable, but 
simply because the higher proportion of proteid in meat 
is now suggested to be a burden rather than an advan- 
tage. 

Thus it is impossible to dogmatise, as one would 
probably have done ten years ago, and as we shall 
perhaps be able to do with greater accuracy ten years 
hence. If the reader is annoyed that his author can- 
not say definitely what is best, I can only say I am 
very sorry, and that he will find plenty of partisans tc 
lay down the briefest and clearest propositions — about 
which nothing is uncertain except their precise relation 
to truth. Meanwhile, one may quote a very significant 
and valuable admission from the revised edition (1906) 
of Dr. Hutchison's work on "Food," to which, as ar 
unrivalled repertory of facts, every writer on dietetic- 



THE USE OF MEAT 265 

•s indebted. The vegetarian party may well be pleased 
'it these words of an author who has a very decided lean- 
ing towards the old school, both as regards proteid and 
dcohol : — 

"The danger, indeed, is all the other way, in the 
direction of a too liberal consumption of meat. It is 
'or insisting upon the disadvantages of such a course, 
|md on the feasibility of living upon a diet from which 
toeat is altogether excluded, that we in this country 
owe even the extremist vegetarian a considerable debt 
of gratitude; and if the above objections to living 
upon a minimum of proteid can be shown to be ground- 
less, as the experiments of Chittenden have already done 
something to prove, then the objections to a purely 
vegetarian diet largely disappear also." 



266 XVI 

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 

The disastrous consequences of an inadequate diet are 
too familiar and too obviously necessary to need any 
insistence. But it is only latterly that we have begun 
to realise how important are the consequences of an 
excessive diet. Doubtless in any individual case they 
are less important than a defective supply of food 
would be ; this latter undoubtedly predisposes to tuber- 
culosis, and probably to the attacks of many other 
infectious diseases. So much cannot be alleged against 
over-feeding. But it is now proved up to the hilt — and 
every day makes it clearer — that over-feeding is also 
disastrous; and it is probably safe to surmise that for 
at least ninety-five readers out of a hundred, arguments 
on this score have the personal importance which would 
not attach to a dissertation on the palpable dangers of 
insufficient food. 

The real pioneer in this matter was a brave and inde- 
pendent thinker whose name is sometimes apt to be for- 
Thework gotten nowadays, but who is still alive and 
of Keith hale in his nineties, and whose little book, 

"A Plea for a Simpler Life," first published in 1895, 
is as well worth reading to-day as ever it was. In this 
rightly celebrated protest Dr. George Keith boldly laid 
down certain propositions diametrically opposed to 
general belief within and without the medical profes- 
sion. What he there said against drugs is now echoec. 
by every one who knows the facts and finds himself fret 
to speak, and his argument against high living, basec 
as it was in his case upon clinical observation and upoi 
common sense, and dating from about 1860. is nov 
based upon the experience of thousands of persons MM 
upon years of the most critical observation and experi 
ment upon the human subject. 

We have emerged into the dawn of science to-da\ 
but until lately medical opinion has undergone the mos 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 267 

ibsurd changes, having just the value and just the 
ame causation as the fashions in feminine head-gear. 
n the 'thirties of last century most of the common 
lisorders were ascribed to excess of some kind or other, 
md treated accordingly. "Depletion was the order of 
he day." Then, in the late 'forties, a London doctor 
tarted the opposite fashion. Nothing, of course, was 
hen known about heredity or the conditions under which 
iving races change, and the medical profession, still two 
generations behind the biologists in its notions of 
leredity, explained its change of front by declaring 
hat the human body had undergone a profound change, 
o that it was "less able to bear lowering measures than 
ormerly." 

Dr. Keith tells us how he early lost faith in the medi- 
al dogmas of the 'forties, but how rudely some of his 
topes were disappointed. He thought that that absurd- 
ty called homoeopathy would involve the decadence of 
Irugging. Such good results were obtained when drugs 
vere given in infinitesimal doses that, as he saw, they 
^ere palpably due to the practical withdrawal of all 
Irugs whatsoever and to greater attention to simpler 
nethods. The profession, however, was too much occu- 
)ied in fighting heterodoxy — which it loathes as no pro- 
ession or institution, and very few individuals, have 
ver loathed falsehood — to see the real meaning of the 
uccess of the homoeopathists. Now, after some seventy 
fears, is Dr. Keith's triumph. 

The "starving doctor," as he was so long called, 
law the truth about drugs, about over-feeding, and 
ibout alcohol, decades before most of us were born, and 
ong before the dawn of the scientific study of any of 
:he three. He saw the meaning of loss of appetite in 
? ever, and the meaning of the desire for water, at a 
;ime when every drop of water was withheld from the 
? everish patient, and when the medical profession defied 
:he indications of appetite in health and in disease even 



268 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

more grossly than the public did and does. He saw the 
value of hot water when no one else did ; and these 
words of his, summing up some sixty years of experienced 
on the part of a man who really could learn from experi- 
ence, are worth quoting now. Of course they are plati- 
tudes, just as most of Herbert Spencer's sayings are' 
platitudes now, but in each case time was when the 
platitudinarian was one against the world : — 

"To sum up : the doubtful remedies which, according 
to the new axiom, 1 are as a rule to be avoided in states 
of disease are medicines of all kinds, alcoholic stimu-^ 
lants, and food ; and nature's methods, which we advise 
to be substituted for them, or rather to be allowed full 
play without them, are rest, not forgetting rest to the 
stomach; warmth, or in rare cases, cold; a free supply 
usually of water, and always of fresh air; and sufficient 
time for the organs to recover their ordinary working 
powers, and especially for the nervous system to make 
up its wasted energy. In short, we must fall back on 
the old and much forgotten vis medicatrix naturce. 

"I have heard of old men who never had taken medi- 
cine, nor consulted a doctor, and who, if they felt 
unwell, at once stopped all food; if this was not enough 
they went to bed, and remained there till they were bet- 
ter. The first rule I have followed for forty years, the 
last for fifteen, since I have been able to do so, and it 
has very rarely been necessary ; and I do not intenc 
to do anything more in the future. My friends car 
see the difference in my health, and I feel it." 

The reader must permit me to insist upon the 
extraordinary insight of this great medical philosopher 
one of the few in any age. Remembering, for instance 
a recent lecture by Sir Frederick Treves, and the opin 
ions which every wise clinician now expresses, let u 

^ x "Better no medicine than a doubtful one," which Di 
Keith proposes to substitute for the extraordinary aphorisr 
of Hippocrates, '•Better a doubtful remedy than none."' 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 269 

I 

consider these words of Dr. Keith's, which show that he 
was a pioneer in the true conception of disease, as in 
so many other directions : — 

"Diseases, as we are called to treat them, or, in other 
words, the abnormal phenomena presented to us by the 
sick, are not the essential elements of the case, but are 
signs of processes set up in the body in order to relieve 
itself of some disturbing influence, threatening to inter- 
fere with its functions, or (it may be) to destroy them 
altogether." 

As we read on and compare Dr. Keith's arguments 
with the facts of clinical experience, and especially of 
modern pathology, we are almost inclined to question 
whether, despite so much medical practice even to-day, 
a patient ever dies of inanition, as such ; that is to say, 
of lack of food materials. It is more than doubtful. 
Even in cases so described, everything seems to show 
that the real cause of death is not inanition but poison- 
ing, the poison being sometimes introduced as such from 
without, but more often manufactured within. 

Is the reader aware that bleeding, once the universal 
medical practice, then absolutely abandoned, is coming 
at last into a rational and intelligent vogue, as, for 
instance, in such a disease as pneumonia — in exact jus- 
tification of the arguments so long maintained by Dr. 
Keith? 

But we are concerned here especially with the ques- 
tion of diet, and the last chapter of Dr. Keith's little 
treatise 1 must be regarded as the real starting-point of 
the modern view. He shows that over-eating must be 
evil, and declares, as we now know he was well justified 
in declaring, that "no doubt there are very few healthy 
people who can afford it, who do not usually exceed." 
As regards meat, he quotes a case which every modern 

1 The reader who seriously cares for hygiene should possess 
a copy of this masterpiece (thirty-five cents, Mitchell Ken- 
nerley). 



270 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

physiologist would now understand. "Perhaps the most 
white-faced family I ever saw was one of six, in South 
America, who had at least two full meals daily of beef 
and mutton. The only exception was the baby, which 
was still at the breast, and which was a fine rosy child." 
This suggests the dictum which one is, I think, war- 
ranted in printing — that red meat turns one white, and 
white milk turns one red. But almost everything that 
we are now coming to see is to be found in this wonder- 
ful little book. Thus, on being consulted by men in 
apparent good health, but who complained of being 
"out of sorts," Dr. Keith, as he tells us, "advised them 
to take their food more slowly, and assured them that 
they would find that less would satisfy them ; and this, 
if carried out, will often enable a man to reduce his 
food by one-hajf, and will add very much to his comfort 
and health." He reminds us of the effect of high living 
upon the racial instinct, too familiar for us to insist 
upon here, and the observation that high living is fatal 
to accurate shooting — this again in exact parallel with 
the modern work on alcohol: and just at the end he 
provides us with a very forcible argument from the 
practice of Sir Isaac Newton, Napoleon, and the Duke 
of Wellington — to whom Mr. Edison, it seems, may be 
added — "who, when engaged in working out some great 
problem in science or war, took actually no food until 
the strain was over." Too little and not too much space 
has been devoted to the work of a great master of 
medicine and of hygiene, the veritable introducer ol 
sanity into modern medical thought. One may merely 
add that, should the reader be annoyed because, in al 
this talk about food. I have included no fixed rules ii 
matters of detail, in this respect I am only following the 
pioneer himself, who deplores strict rules, and calls hit 
long experience to witness in favour of this opinion. 

The name of an American gentleman, Mr. Horace 
Fletcher, must here be named and honoured. This i; 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 271 

| 

not to commit us to all his views, but to recognise that 
he is a real pioneer. The greater part of the prin- 
ciples which have been laid down in pre- The work of 
ceding pages, and which are to be asso- Mr. Fletcher 
ciated with the names of Herbert Spencer and Dr. 
Keith, are also accredited by Mr. Fletcher. But to 
him we owe the particular service of bringing the mat- 
ter before the tribunal of exact science. The late Sir 
Michael Foster, one of the greatest of modern physi- 
ologists, had his attention brought to the matter in 
1901, and was very deeply impressed by the observa- 
tions of Mr. Fletcher and those who were helping him. 
Experiments performed at Cambridge succeeded in 
arousing the interest of scientific men in America, and 
especially of Professor Chittenden of Yale, who is now 
the leading scientific protagonist of the new doctrine 
in dietetics, which he has called "economic nutrition." 
A.t the time of writing, controversy on this matter rages 
high. Many distinguished students in this country, 
such as Dr. Robert Hutchison and Sir James Crichton- 
Browne, are very far from accepting Chittenden's 
results. To attempt to decide the controversy now 
would be simply preposterous. So much the worse, of 
course, for the writer, since nothing pleases the public 
better than thoroughgoing dogmatism. Nevertheless, 
one is compelled merely to present the principles of the 
new dietetics as fairly as possible, and to show that at 
the very least we have here a doctrine which must be 
taken seriously. It may be wholly true or only partly 
true, but it is definitely past the stage when it can be 
ignored, or the second stage commonly encountered by 
a new doctrine, when it is ridiculed. At the moment, 
as we might expect, Chittenden's work has made greater 
headway in America than elsewhere. The number of 
its adherents in England is not insignificant, however; 
in Germany, on the other hand — though the popular 
trend is undoubtedly away from meat — the recognised 



272 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



physiologists are still quite content to retain the older 
views of a generation ago as to beef and beer and an 
abundance of proteid food. On the other hand, at a 
recent International Congress on Hygiene in Berlin, the 
question of the amount of proteid we daily need — and 
that is the leading question at issue — was discussed, and 
the opinions in favour of a low proteid diet, as against 
the older view, were very decidedly in the ascendant. 
One speaker, for instance, insisted upon the possibility 
of violent athletic exercise on a very low proteid diet, 
and another said that he "had been able to keep his 
family in health on food which cost him about three- 
halfpence a head per diem, for years ; on this diet his 
wife could ride her bicycle from eighty to a hundred : 
kilometres." None of these assertions is advanced as 
conclusive. Merely I wish to show the reader that the 
unprejudiced observer is now bound, beyond a doubt, tc 
listen to Fletcher and Chittenden freely and wit? 
respect. 

It was one of the basal propositions of physical sci- 
ence which led the present writer, as a medical student 
The inde- *° pig eon_ hole the views of Dr. Keith in hi 

structibility mind many years before scientific experi 
of matter ment was forthcoming in their support 

The physicists teach a doctrine of the conservation o 
matter, and though the discovery of radio-activity an< 
the modern electrical theories of matter have cause* 
this dogma to be abandoned as an ultimate truth, ye 
practically and proximately it has to be reckoned wit! 
No atom or molecule of food or anything else that w 
consume is annihilated. It must either remain in th 
body permanently or it must leave the body. Tb 
inevitable conclusion is that if it is not stored, it i 
worse than useless. Either it must lie in the bod 
somewhere, as foreign matter which cannot be beneficia 
or else it must be disposed of, and this disposal mu* 
necessarily involve vital cost. These propositions ai 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 273 

Necessarily true, whatever be the details of the fate of 
superfluous food. If, in addition, we find that the sur- 
plus forms definite poisons, then the matter becomes still 
nore important than it would be if there were merely a 
>yaste of vital energy to consider. 

We have, then, first of all, to find out by experiment 
low little food the body will actually thrive upon, and 
secondly, what happens to the surplus. Especially must 
we ascertain whether the surplus — as most people incline 
to believe — can be stored up against a day of need, or 
whether this is impossible. To be brief, the new theory 
asserts that the food requirement is a mere fraction of 
sriiat used to be believed, that the surplus can be stored 
xp against a day of need only to a small extent, and 
not at all in the case of the most important food, 
Krhich is proteid ; and that the business of disposing of 
the surplus is a serious one, involving labour on the 
part of many vital organs, and in the long run nothing 
[ess than chronic food-poisoning, for which we pay in 
the form of degeneration of the blood-vessels, kidneys, 
and other organs — these degenerations being hitherto 
D[uite unexplained by pathology, which has commonly, 
but without an iota of evidence, put them down as senile. 

Now before we go any further, it is well to recognise 
as an absolutely cardinal truth the doctrine that some- 
thing must happen to everything that enters our 
mouths. In health we know no more of the matter than 
that from the moment of swallowing there is nothing 
more to know. That, of course, is well, but the law of 
the conservation of matter remains. For the present 
purpose, we cannot do better than regard the body as 
the engine of a motor-car. It is this, though it is more ; 
and the standpoint of the present book, which tries to 
insist that man is more than a machine, would be 
reactionary and useless if we were not to recognise that 
the body is a physico-chemical machine, even though we 
shall never explain the whole of the human being in 



274 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

these terms. Now no one who knows anything of any 
engine will question that something must happen to 
everything that is put into it, and that if more is put 
into it than it can use, some injury must result. If 
we consider this in the light of what we know of path- 
ology, and especially in the light of the fashion in which 
our bodies degenerate many decades before they should, 
on analogy with other living creatures, and especially 
if we realise how utterly the current pathology fails to 
explain these degenerations, we may begin to suspect 
that something like an epoch is being established by the 
new students of dietetics. 

There is an exceedingly forcible argument for the 
new view which is based upon the machine analogy — 
The machine if indeed analogy be not much too weak a 
theory word. The essential constituent of the liv- 

ing machine is proteid. The work which it does i 
combustion in the main, and for this purpose it 
fuel. These fuels will burn outside the body as the; 
do within it. An inorganic machine could be run on th 
combustion of sugar, just as the body can. The firs 
food need, then, is for fuel, and the fuel foods are th 
fats and the carbohydrates, starch and sugar. But th 
body, unlike all inorganic machines, itself undergoes 
ceaseless flux. From moment to moment it is bein; 
broken down and remade. For its maintenance the an 
mal body, unlike the vegetable body, requires contini 
ous supplies of its characteristic constituent, protei. 
Ideally, then, we should consume just so much ] 
as is necessary for tissue-maintenance; whilst all ou 
energy should be obtained from the mere fuel I 
Such a diet would be most economical from the mom 
tary point of view, but, as we shall see — and this is { 
more important — it would be most economical from tl 
vital point of view. 

For observe that proteids also can be burnt. Su] 
pose, then, that the supply of pure fuel is deficient, tl 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 275 

necessary energy must and will be obtained by the com- 
mstion of proteid, the least objection to which is that 
oroteid food is dear. Or it may be — and this is the 
rule with nearly all of us — that the proteid intake is 
tery much in excess of the requirements of tissue-main- 
tenance, and therefore that — although the supply of 
jpure fuel may be abundant — there must be a combus- 
tion of proteid, not for any good that is to be got out 
i)f it, but simply in order to get rid of it. The normal 
; body does not excrete proteid as such. There is nothing 
:o be done but to burn it up. 

The question then is, what happens when proteid is 
ipurnt in the body, whether because in the absence of 
jpure fuel it must be burnt, or whether because it is 
Jcaken in excess? Here modern physiological chemistry 
i ( has its say. It teaches us that the pure fuel is wholly 
burnt. In the case of fats, there are carbon and hydro- 
gen to burn ; in the case of starch and sugar there is 
carbon to burn. Two simple substances, then, are the 
fjproducts of this combustion — carbonic acid and water. 
jThat is the whole story. The carbonic acid is disposed 
pi by the lungs with the utmost ease, and by a process 
ijwhich seems to be purely mechanical and costless of life, 
rjdepending, as it seems to do, automatically upon the 
proportion of pressure of carbonic acid in the blood and 
in the inspired air. As for the water, it is disposed of 
by lungs, skin, and kidneys, without any appreciable 
labour; it is not a poison, but it is the solvent and 
diluent of poisons, and carries them away with it. 
Nothing could well be more perfect and complete than 
these processes as they normally occur in every living 
organism, the body of man included. 

But now let us consider the fate of proteid in the 
body — or, rather, of all proteid beyond that propor- 
tion, whatever it be, which is necessary for tissue-main- 
tenance. The case is utterly different. Fat and sugar 
are not simple chemical bodies, but, compared with 



276 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



the simplest proteid, they are as simple as water. The 
bodily combustion of proteids is, at the very best, a 
most imperfect process. If it were perfect, the products 
should be carbonic acid and water, whilst the nitrogen 
which is characteristic of all proteid might just remain 
as free nitrogen, which is neutral and harmless. 
Nothing of the kind happens. Perhaps we may be able 
to name a dozen of the products of proteid combustion 
in the body. For all we know, there may yet be hun- 
dreds awaiting discovery. We are now beginning to 
guess what they do. 

All these are theoretical considerations, and the 
reader may find them dull. If, however, he is inter- 
ested in machinery, and will consider the case of imper- 
fect combustion in the instances he knows, even this 
physiological theory may be pardoned. The present 
point is simply that the student who has never practised 
Fletcherism, never met a Fletcherite, never spared a 
thought for his own diet, and who even deplores the 
amount of attention which the food question obtains at 
the present day, is bound by a knowledge of the ele- 
ments of physiology to approach these new views with 
very considerable favour. 

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating; the 
proof of gravitation is in the discovery of Neptune; 
the proof of Listerism in the healing The results 
wound. In other words, wonderful though of low 
the human mind be, it must test every proteid diet 
theory by experiment. In the case before us, if wc 
are to believe the varied, repeated, critical, and com- 
prehensive testimony of the last seven years, it seema 
impossible to deny that theory is warranted by practice. 
Of course, the experience of one individual, or two or 
ten, does not necessarily mean anything, just for the 
reason that man is more than a motor-car, and that. 
on the whole, faith is more than food. We had tc 
listen with respect to the case of Mr. Fletcher himself. 



THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS Til 

ivery interesting and significant— but significant of 
what, we could not yet say ; and so with the other early 
enthusiasts. The influence of suggestion and emula- 
tion, and oi the mind over the body, or, if you prefer, 
the trophic influence of the nervous system upon every 
tissue or organ — this had to be reckoned with. 

But the case is now different. For single persons 
we now have scores, for believers in science, or for 
personal friends of Mr. Fletcher, we now have utterly 
unbiassed persons — soldiers, students, and so on. Then 
again, there was the factor of time. We heard of good 
results, but how long would they last? Here again, 
we are compelled — it seems impossible to deny — to 
admit a favourable verdict. Even a carnivore, such as 
the dog, thrives on a low proteid diet, and goes on 
thriving, and even gains in weight. As for man, he 
seems to benefit in every way ; the elderly cease to grow 
'old," the athlete becomes stronger, fitter, quicker ; the 
student studies better. Such, at any rate, are the 
'esults which are laid before us, and which, as it seems 
;o me, we cannot but accept. 

Of course, in science the true answer to experiment 
s experiment. Protests and criticisms are all very well, 
md may or may not be useful according to their 
:haracter, but those who uphold the older views in any 
ubject must meet the newcomer sooner or later by 
ippeal to the only authority, which is Nature. When 
i clinical observer makes experiment with alcohol m 
meumonia, critically comparing the results in a large 
number of cases, treated with and without the drug, 
-nd finds that, according to his results, the use of 
.Icohol in this disease kills a large percentage of 
>atients, he may or may not be right, but the only 
nal method of answering him is to repeat his exped- 
ient and to obtain different results. In this particular 
ase several years have passed, and the champions of 
Icohol have done nothing except what the contem- 



278 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

poraries of Galileo did — appeal to Aristotle. Similarly 
in this case. The old school go on appealing to Aris-. 
totle, but this is merely tiresome. If they are to refute 
Professor Chittenden, the}* must repeat his expert 
and obtain different results. Hitherto, the new views 
on dietetics, like the new views on alcohol, remain utterly 
unchallenged by experiment, and we shall very soon, if 
not now, be entitled to say that the case of the gentle- 
men who do not desire to be proved wrong is going 
against them by default. 

The idea of self-poisoning or auto-intoxication, then, 
must henceforth be reckoned with in the study oi 
Self- dietetics. As a matter of fact, experiment 

poisoning with various constituents of diet suggest* 
that a great deal of what is commonly called auto- 
intoxication is no such thing, but the consequence ol 
actually poisonous elements in tin- food. Apart froir 
these, however, there IS the auto-intoxication dependent 
upon the production by the body of \ 
from the decomposition of food excess, and especially oi 
the proteid surplus. Tina \a not the time or the plac 
to discuss the precise figures of P Chittenden 

though he has for some tin* 1 that tv 

ounces of proteid per diem represent the daily iu- 
of a man of avi Hut it is well that we shoo 

learn the importance which modem pathology attache 4 , 
to the idea of auto-intoxication, and that w< 
recognise this as one oi the consequences oi taking ai 
excess of proteid — which practically means eating toe 
much meat. What exactly constitute- ... — is a poiir 
which we need not be too hasty in deciding. On thi: 
matter of intoxication dependent upon what 
the greatest living authority is undoubtedly P 
Metchnikoff. The impartial observer need attach very 
little importance to the remarks made at the end o 
chapter iv. of Professor MetchnikofTs last book "Th« 
Prolongation oi Life." It is perfectly plain tha 






THE NEW SCHOOL OF DIETETICS 279 

Metchnikoff and Chittenden are making for the same 
goal, and that their work is complementary. Metchni- 
koff has a particular view of his own as to the best 
method of avoiding auto-intoxication, and so is nat- 
urally inclined to criticise Mr. Fletcher's panacea of 
slow eating. I believe that there is a great deal of 
truth in the opinions of both workers. As to the 
description of "bradyfagy," a "disease due to eating 
too slowly," it is in any case the last disease that most 
rf us need fear, and the invention of words is at least 
is easy as the discovery of truths. Any one who 
remembers his Greek can discover fifty new diseases in 
in afternoon. At the same time there is force in 
UetchnikofPs arguments from comparative physiology, 
and it is difficult to dissuade oneself of the idea that the 
extreme mastication prescribed by Mr. Fletcher is 
scarcely natural. 

These are details. The point is that food-poisoning, 
Dr poisoning by the products of food, must now be 
recognised, however it is to be avoided. It is the recog- 
nition of this that to my mind marks, rather than any- 
thing else, the new school of dietetics. The American 
observers may lay greatest stress upon the excess of 
food, as such; Metchnikoff, on the other hand, may 
insist mainly upon microbic products formed in the 
bowel. For us the difference matters little, but the ex- 
perience of the Fletcherites strongly suggests that the 
microbic processes which Metchnikoff fears cannot be 
more effectively and completely abolished than by the 
Fletcherite regime. I am not acquainted with any evi- 
dence provided by the followers of Metchnikoff to 
show that their systematic employment of lactic 
acid works any better in practice than the American 
method, if indeed, it works anything like so well. 

For us at the present stage it is sufficient to realise 
that various and independent schools of contemporary 
workers, approaching the matter from wholly different 



280 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

standpoints and with wholly different presuppositions, 
are making it more certain every day that nine-tenths 
of what we call old age, senile changes, premature 
senility, tissue degeneration, and so forth, are due not 
to time, but to toxins, have nothing whatever to do 
with old age as such, but are the results of chronic 
poisoning — winch by one means or two or man}' will 
be avoided in the future. This is the really important 
aspect of the food question to-day. The faddists may 
fight as long as they please over the relative merits of 
this particular article of diet as against that — it mat- 
ters little : but if it should be proved, as it is now quite 
evidently being proved, that, qualitative details apart, 
the quantity of food consumed by all but the poor is 
highly excessive; that this excess, whether as such or 
whether under the action of microbes, involves the con- 
tinuous exposure of the body to poisons; that, as 
Metchnikoff declares, a man should be old not at sev- 
enty, but at a hundred and twenty; that if we were 
wiser we should live to play cricket with our great- 
grandchildren ; that it is possible to gather decades of 
experience without growing old; that life may be active, 
happy, and profitable to self and others in the eighties 
as in the twenties — then, plainly, the food question is 
worth discussing after all. 



XVII M1 



THE CARE OF THE BOWEL 






The question of the care of the bowel follows directly 
upon that of food. It is true that a small section of 
the community appear on their own showing to have 
solved this question altogether. These are the Fletcher- 
ltes, who have reduced the waste matter of their diet 
to an almost infinitesimal quantity, which they call the 
digestion ash," and who require to dispose of it per- 
haps only once in a fortnight. The possibility of this, 
* however, depends entirely upon the adoption of a 
very circumscribed dietary scheme, and we may here 
ignore it. 

The majority of any civilised community find it dif- 
ficult to meet the requirements of health in this respect. 
The selection of diet and the mode of its The 
preparation, eliminating as it does the negkcted 
greater part of the "ballast," works hand bowel 
in hand with the sedentary life (involving the abdom- 
inal muscles, internal and external, in a lack of tone), 
together with the mere rush of existence, towards the 
production of constipation as by far the commonest of 
all minor maladies. Indirect testimony to this is fur- 
nished by analysis of patent medicines. Occasional 
revelations show the almost incredible extent to which 
they are consumed, and if we classed the whole of them 
as aperients we should really be not far from the truth. 
Most of them simply consist of aloes, the familiar 
aperient, disguised in one or another form. These are 
the constituents of the most popular pills, syrups, and 
so forth. These drugs cannot be condemned without 
qualification. Of course they are monstrously expen- 
sive ; also their use in many cases must favour the pro- 
duction of haemorrhoids ; but large sections of the com- 
munity undoubtedly find them valuable simply because 
they relieve the constipation from which so many people 
suffer. 



282 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

A mere overloading of the bowel, as such, would 
probably be of small moment. It is not constipation, 
but what it involves, that is injurious. Microbes appear 
to enter the body of the infant about the tenth or 
eleventh day, and thereafter they are never absent — 
except, perhaps, from the bowel of the Fletcherite. It 
may possibly be that, as Professor Metchnikoff main- 
tains, the characteristic microbe of milk is beneficent 
because it controls the growth of others. But, with 
this exception, the intestinal flora, as it is elegantly 
styled by bacteriologists, is unquestionably injurious 
unless it is kept under control. Apart from the inci- 
dence of such maladies as appendicitis — which is, curi- 
ously enough, commonest in the least constipated class 
of the community, viz. young men — the microbes of the 
bowel in the course of their life do us injury by the 
production of a host of chemical compounds which 
necessarily enter the blood, as examination of the urine, 
for instance, will immediately prove. The constipated 
person, then, is subject to a chronic poisoning by prod- 
ucts which are usually described as of his own manu- 
facture — though, as we sec, this is scarcely accurate. 
The conception of what is called auto-intoxication is 
an undoubtedly true and valuable one, explaining as it 
does many of the BO-called phenomena of senility, and 
doubtless leading, on the whole, to a vast abbreviation 
of human life. Scrupulous care of the bowel is undoubt- 
edly one of the means by which it may be reduced or 
avoided. 

It should be known to elderly people that a finger 
can be laid on the cause of certain of their troubles — 
"Vague feelings of organic bodily discomfort . . . 
which interfere with the full enjoyment of life, and 
which mean that the processes of nutrition, and the 
working of the* great internal organs connected with 
digestion, are not done as veil as before, and no I 
give conscious satisfaction. This feeling is often con- 



THE CARE OF THE BOWEL 283 

nected with a newly developed constipation of the 
bowels, and with the diminished keenness of the appetite 
of food." As Dr. Clouston, from whom the quotation 
is made, points out, the symptoms are due to an auto- 
intoxication which demands a considerable modification 
of the diet at this time of life. This modification should 
take the form of reduction, and it is particularly neces- 
sary to control the constipation to which he refers. 

Dyctors commonly lay down the rule of "once a day" 
for an adult. Let no ignorant person in charge of a 
young baby imagine that this will suffice The matter 
for it. But for the adult it constitutes a of frequency 
good enough standard. There are hosts of exceptions 
to it which are consonant with perfect health, and it is 
well that this should be recognised. Every other day 
may be the rule with some people, and I have in my 
mind a case of a person in perfect health whose bowel 
has regularly moved twice a day for many years. That 
the question of diet largely determines the need of the 
individual is proved by the Fletcherites, who thrive 
under conditions which would suggest the immediate 
need of an abdominal operation in other people. Still 
the rule of once a day is a good one, and those in whom 
the frequency can be lessened consonantly with perfect 
health are the exceptions. 

Modern students of hypnotic suggestion have proved 
up to the hilt the extent to which the action of the 
bowel is under the control of the nervous xheeduca- 
system. In suggestible subjects they are tionofthe 
able as a matter of course to cure the most bowe 
obstinate constipation by instruction of the sub-con- 
sciousness, as we call it, quite apart from any regula- 
tion of diet, or the use of any drugs. They can inform 
the patient that the bowel will make a demand at a 
given hour, and so it does. There can be no question 
at all that the formation of what is really a nervous 
habit is the proper means of dealing with constipation. 



284 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

It is vastly superior to the use of any drugs, and is 
of course applicable in cases where the use of an irri- 
tating and bulky diet would only upset the digestion. 
Such a sound habit can be formed quite independently 
of hypnotic suggestion. Dr. Schofield, our foremost 
authority on functional nerve disease, has told us how- 
it is possible to establish a habit that will last through- 
out life. A definite hour is to be selected; "the bowels 
are henceforth to be opened at that hour, and at no 
other. Whatever the inclination to go before, it is to 
be resisted. Five minutes before the appointed time, 
the patient is to be solemnly got out of bed, robed in 
dressing-gown, and taken to the closet, whatever her 
feelings. . . . The hour is not to pass without the 
bowels being opened." If necessary, an enema must be 
given. Dr. Schofield continue- : — 

"After some weeks a natural desire will be felt at 
the exact time, ami from this time only steady per- 
severance is required to form the fixed habit for life. I 
could adduce numberlesfl cases at all ages, from 
childhood to a lady seventy-four years of a 
rectum was so inactive that a trained nurse was kept 
in the house solely to evacuate it artificially, and who 
yet established a perfect habit in Bix weeks. Of course 
no day must be missed, and the hour never varied. I 
think on the whole I have earned more gratitude from 
patients by forming this habit in bad cases of simple 
constipation than in any other way." 

It is open to any reader to train himself in this 
fashion, definitely understanding, from the first, that 
success is certain even in the most extreme cas 
purely nervous constipation. Certain rules may be sug- 
gested. The hour, of course, should be after bres 
Various movements associated with getting up have 
begun to wake the bowel. Much stimulation is afforded 
to it from within by the breakfast. In many men the 
after-breakfast pipe is also oi assistance. These cir- 



THE CARE OF THE BOWEL 285 

cumstances combine to make this the best hour. It 
must be rigidly adhered to, inclination or no inclina- 
tion. The further point is that sufficient time must be 
allowed. This is very frequently overlooked, especially 
as the business man has little time to spare at this hour 
of the day. The nervous apparatus may decline to be 
hurried, and its action may be inhibited by the con- 
sciousness of hurry. If a fixed hour is adopted and 
adhered to, and if a sufficient time is always allowed, 
the necessary nervous habit can be formed by any 
one. 

The formation of this habit is a real boon. Many 
forms of headache, indigestion, lack of appetite, mental 
and physical fatigue, bad temper, together with various 
aches and pains — commonly described as rheumatic or 
the like — can be avoided by the avoidance of constipa- 
tion. Indeed, if the reader desires to ascertain the 
number and variety of the disorders for which constipa- 
tion is largely responsible, he need only turn to the 
advertisement of any popular pill. We laugh, of 
course, at the claims of these patent medicines, but 
any drug which relieves constipation may make most, 
at any rate, of these various claims with some show of 
warrant. The maladies which it professes to cure are 
one and all symptoms — various though they appear— 
of a single condition which the drug attacks; and if 
one is not going to meet constipation in any other way, 
it is certainly better to swallow these various pills than 
to suffer from its consequences. In this sense they are 
worth many guineas a box, even though any chemist 
would be prepared to dispense exactly the same thing at 
2d. a box, and make a handsome profit on that. Aloes 
is cheap, and so is sugar. 

One more word regarding drugs. It must be clearly 
laid down that the drug is not known which in any 
proper sense of the word cures chronic constipation. 
Every medical student is warned against imagining that 



288 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

this is possible. The drugs used by the manufacturers 
of patent medicines have this particular virtue for their 
vendors, that they insure the perpetuation of the need 
for them. As I have said, it is better to use them than 
to be constipated, but it is vastly better not to use 
them. There is a real parallel between their employ- 
ment and that of most hypnotics ; and in both cases the 
common sequel will be a necessity to increase the dose. 
Further, aloes and similar drugs markedly relax the 
venous circulation in the lower bowel, and though 
haemorrhoids are doubtless less injurious to the health 
than chronic constipation, they are a burden not lightty 
to be borne. The formation of habits of regularity 
and punctuality is at least as effective as any drug, is 
vastly diaper, and is free from all disadvantages. It 
is a mark of the folly which attends our so-called 
national education, that these elementary truths of per- 
sonal hygiene should be quite unknown to the great 
majority of the community. To educate the boieel 
M rciillij to educate tJie lower brain, which is the 
only educational route to the higher brain. Things 
less true and new than this have been said, per- 
haps. 

Superior people constantly blame the lower cl 
for their consumption of patent medicines. They 
should blame themselves in so far as they are response 
blc for the methods of education which alone permit the 
enormous sale of these compounds. It i- 
that the composition of patent medicines should always 
be printed upon them. This is doubtless good, so far 
as it goes, but it is not the real remedy, which is the 
inclusion of personal hygiene and the formation of 
habits of health as not merely an item in the education 
of every one, but as obviously and inevitably the first 
and most important item. The reader may be referred 
to Herbert Spencer's remarks on this subject made 
nearly fifty years ago. 



THE CARE OF THE BOWEL 287 

Though all other considerations are subsidiary to the 
-formation of the nervous habit, yet a word or two may 
profitably be said as to diet. Whole-meal Constipation 
porridge is to be commended, and oatcakes and di*t 
and brown bread: it being assumed that the digestion 
will accommodate these things. Both children and 
adults should consume the crust of bread and toast. 
Syrup, treacle, and marmalade are useful at breakfast ; 
fresh vegetables are always valuable, partly as furnish- 
ing "ballast," and partly on account of the aperient 
salts which they contain. It is scarcely possible to eat 
too much fruit. Every one should eat some fruit every 
clay. It is valuable for the bowel and no less valuable 
for the blood. Fresh fruit is the best, but stewed figs 
and prunes are very useful, and if one cannot obtain 
fresh fruit, jam, at least, should be taken. Often con- 
stipation can be much relieved by increasing the con- 
sumption of fluid, especially between meals. Milk is 
somewhat constipative, and buttermilk may sometimes 
be substituted. It is highly nutrient, and may have 
other virtues as well. Nothing can be more stupid than 
the too common custom of taking aperient medicines 
every day, whilst consuming large quantities of im- 
properly made tea, containing an abundance of that 
highly astringent substance, tannic acid. (As the exact 
English of astringent is "binding," the word is not so 

i technical as it appears.) 

In the chapter on Exercise, reference has been made 

j to the importance of keeping the abdominal muscles in 
proper tone. This is most important, and if the cult 

; of muscle is to be justified at all, it is on the ground 
that at least it opposes constipation. 

If the constipated reader will take seriously what 
is said in this chapter, especially as to the avoidance 
of drugs and the formation of a sound nervous habit, 
he will certainly find that the reading of this simple lit- 
tle book has given him a new lease of life and happiness. 



288 XVIII 

THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES 

So far as personal attention is concerned, the bowel 
is the most important organ of excretion, and after 
it we may rate the skin, but a word or two must be 
said regarding the kidneys, and this by way of warn- 
ing. They are best not thought about. In the more 
or less hypothetical man who lives a rational life, these 
wonderful organs will do their work without any care 
or attention, and will remain undegenerate until the 
close of life. Alcohol, syphilis, and lead may poison 
them, but Bright's disease has nothing whatever to do 
with pain in the back, and need not be feared by those 
who avoid the definite agents of renal degeneration. 
Of course, volumes might be written upon the pathology 
of Bright's disease, but I wish merely to warn the 
reader against believing all that he hears about it. 
Let him be also warned against taking note of the 
colour of the renal secretion. Unless, indeed, from the 
purely esthetic point of view, this is not worth doing. 
More varieties of yellow, no doubt, will thus be revealed 
to the artistic eye than in any other quarter, except, 
perhaps, a sunset, but their physiological significance 
is nugatory or non-existent. If a man's skin has been 
very active, so that much water has been tost by that 
channel, of course the pigments of the renal secretion 
will be less diluted, and so it will appear high-coloured. 
It is not worth while to consult a doctor on the meaning 
of this remarkable phenomenon. 

The other great organ of excretion is the skin. It 
is, however, the excretion of water and not of other 
matters that it mainly effects. Thus a varnished per- 
son will survive. On an average, however, we dispose 
of about 25 ounces of water each day by means of the 
skin, and this function is to be promoted, since the free 
and rapid circulation of water through the body prob- 
ably makes as such for vigour and life, even apart 



THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES 289 

from the fact that water is a solvent in some degree 
of almost all waste products, and so helps in their 
removal. 

Something has been said in a previous chapter as 

to the relations between the skin and the body heat. 

It is mainly by the evaporation of the water of the 

sweat that the skin regulates the body temperature. 

'The dissolved solids are left upon the skin, and the chief 

Muse of washing is to remove them. The reaction of 

'fresh perspiration is acid, but the microbes which are 

1 present in even the cleanliest skin effect a change which 

makes the reaction alkaline, and gives the solids of 

stale perspiration their unpleasant odour. The extent 

iof this odour marks the average cleanliness of a crowd. 

-The densest Japanese crowd, for instance, is said to 

'have no odour at all. In the study of the effects of 

bad ventilation, it seems uncertain how far they should 

be attributed to the inhalation of the gases arising from 

an ill-groomed skin. Judging by the habits of our 

j ancestors and of the most abundant classes in the com- 

j |munity to-day, it seems more than likely that we can 

: exaggerate the ill-effects of lack of cleanliness, and 

doubtless these would be even less than they are if we 

were more scrupulous about the rule that clothing 

should be absorbent, and that by being worn loose it 

should interfere as little as possible with the ventila- 

I jtion of the skin. 

No student of physiology can question for a moment 
jthat, important though external washing be, internal 
washing is vastly more so. As a Sussex hashing 
"; gardener, innocent of bathing, remarked, from within 
""I be quite clean: my sweat cleans me." ^£*°™ 
Very many of us would doubtless be better 
H for drinking more fluids of an innocent kind between 
1 meals. This makes for the essential cleanliness, which 
' is a cleanliness not of skin but of tissues. Leaving 
the body through the kidneys, the skin, and the lungs, 



290 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



the water, in so far as it leaves by the two former 
channels (which convey between them about seven- 
eighths of all the water that leaves the body), carries 
away with it in solution a multitude of effete products. 
This necessity for internal washing is often overlooked 
and ignored by those who are most scrupulous as to the 
cleanliness of the skin, which is, after all, of greater 
importance from the aesthetic than from the hygienic 
point of view. They "make clean the outside of the 
cup and the platter, but within they are full of extor- 
tion and excess." It would perhaps be too much to 
quote further, and say that they "are like unto whitened 
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but 
are within full of . . . all uncleanness." Yet certainly 
the exhortation is for them, "Cleanse first that which is 
within the cup and platter, that the outside of them 
may be clean also." The quotation applies in full 
measure to those who neglect the hygiene of the bowel, 
which they do allow to become tilled with all uncleanness 
and excess, to the injury of the whole body; though 
one-thousandth part of its contents found upon their 
skin — from which it cannot be absorbed — would cause 
them the utmost disgust and concern. 

Herein we find further commendation for exen ■'. 
promoting the activity of the skin, and thus the process 
of washing from within. It is probably good for ever* 
one that, during some part at any rate of every day, 
he should undergo sufficient active exertion to induce 
free perspiration. 

Herein also lies the value of those forms of bath, 
such as the Turkish bath, which promote perspiration. 
In cases where other organs of excretion, such as the 
kidney, are defective in their action, the skin thus exer- 
cised may go not a small way towards making good 
the deficiency. I wish to insist that the passag 
water through the skin in this fashion is a thousand- 
fold more cleansing in the proper sense of the word than 



THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES 291 

j the mere application of water to it from without. 
In the interests of physical asceticism, the cold bath 
might doubtless be commended for those to whom it 
is trying, but not on other grounds. After The cold 
j all, the cold bath is a most inefficient bath 

cleanser, and any virtues that it has are not the obvious 

I virtues of washing. It is apt to become a fetish. I 

J have known elderly people who persisted in the cold 

bath, without misgiving, though for hours afterwards 

their extremities were chilly, if not indeed blue. If such 

persons can be dissuaded from the practice, they benefit 

greatly. In the case of the cold bath, whether indoors 

' or out-of-doors, there is one simple criterion of its value, 

i, and that is the occurrence of the healthy reaction indi- 

I cated by the after-glow of the skin. If this does not 

occur, one has lost and not gained. It has to be 

1 remembered that during every moment we pass in cold 

water, heat is being lost from the body. This, as such, 

is nothing but loss. It is warrantable only if it involves 

stimulation of the nervous system, the good effects of 

which will persist for hours afterwards. In general, 

it may be said that the value of a cold bath is in inverse 

proportion to its length. If the half-minute dip is 

found beneficial, ten minutes will be by no means twenty 

times as beneficial, but may be very injurious indeed. 

For purposes of cleansing, which largely means the 
removal of fatty matter from the surface, warm water 
is required, and if one has to choose between The warm 
going to bed with the day's dirt and remov- bath 
ing it in the morning, or, on the other hand, going 
to bed clean, it is obvious* that we can state in a word 
the ideal practice as regards bathing. It is that the 
warm bath be taken at night, and a cold dip in the 
morning. Thus one obtains the stimulation when it is 
wanted, and cleansing, together with the soporific effect 
of a warm bath, when these are wanted. One need 
hardly point out that the warmth has the further value 



292 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of inducing perspiration, largely dependent upon the 
flooding of the skin with blood, which involves a relative 
anasmia of the brain conducive to sleep. 

It is probably a bad practice to use extremely hot 
water for bathing. 

The surgeon has long ago abandoned the sponge. 
Growing in sea-water, this is a beautiful and admirably 
adapted animal, but for purposes of cleansing its corpse 
has its defects. If we are to be particular, we shall 
abolish it from the bathroom, as it has long been abol- 
ished from the surgical theatre. Various substitutes 
are familiar to all. They should be rough, cheap, and 
frequently replaced. 

As regards special kinds of baths, the value of sug- 
gestion must be insisted upon, as also that of the daily 
regimen commonly associated with their use. There is 
no absorption by the skin cither of the water or of the 
dissolved solids of the bath. In so far as they have any 
action at all, it must be through stimulation of the 
nerves of the skin, and this is quite inappreciable. It 
is evident that if a man who has been over-eating, tak- 
ing no exercise, living in stale air and artificial light, 
drinking too little water and too much alcohol, sud- 
denly adopts a rational mode of life, he will profit. He 
would profit similarly whether he happened to bathe or 
not, whether at a Continental Spa or in a London 
suburb. 

A word or two may be said as to the creation oi 
facial beauty. The popular methods are, of course- 
Beauty of beneath our contempt, it being here assumed 
skin that the brain or the mind is the man 

The skin, however, is necessarily affected by the move- 
ment of the subjacent muscles of the face, and thi: 
movement largely depends upon emotion. In the lon^ 
run, therefore, if the emotions have been beautiful, tin 
face will become beautiful, and vice versa. This is th« 
rational basis of physiognomy, and the interested 



THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES 293 

reader will find every warrant for it in Darwin's great 
work on the expression of the emotions. For the rest, 
any discussion of the injurious results of cosmetics may 
be deferred to a subsequent volume devoted to the inter- 
ests of the sex which, as we know, used cosmetics in 
Knossos four thousand years ago, and has been using 
them ever since. It may fairly be noted, however, that 
many soaps are really unsuitable for the skin of the 
face, and that the presence of free alkali in a soap, 
though undoubtedly increasing its cleansing power, 
makes it injurious to a delicate skin. Injury is often 
wrought to the skin also, especially in cold weather, by 
defective drying. Water rapidly evaporates from the 
skin, and in doing so lowers its temperature — hence the 
chapping of the skin on the imperfectly dried wrists 
of children. The best remedy is, of course, some sub- 
stance which prevents this rapid evaporation. Typical 
of such substances is glycerine, with its affinity for a 
quantum of water. One may also mention the natural 
fat of sheep's wool, often known as lanoline. The 
petroleum preparation called vaseline is also good. All 
of these substances are antiseptic, or at least incapable 
of sustaining microbe life. 

Something has already been said as to the fashion in 
which we destroy the hair, and it may safely be declared 
that every one's hair would last longer if The care of 
we avoided hats, especially tight hats, and the hair 
if we devoted as much care to the cleanliness of the 
scalp as to that of the rest of the skin. In so far as 
hats must be worn, they should be ventilated. Even 
then, however, the hat supplies the best possible condi- 
tions for the growth of the microbes which ultimately 
destroy the hair. The temperature within a panama 
hat is stated to be less than that induced by any other 
form of headgear. The difference in its favour as 
compared with the silk hat is 11° Fahrenheit. If we 
consider that, besides raising the temperature, the hat 



294 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

interferes with evaporation, reduces the supply of arte- 
rial blood, and interferes with the removal of venous 
blood, it will be evident that the health of the hair is 
endangered. Doubtless, less injury would be wrought 
if at least once a day the scalp were thoroughly 
cleansed, preferably with some really effective carbolic 
soap, and then subjected to such friction as would help 
to restore the circulation. For some incomprehensible 
reason, however, many men who are most scrupulous as 
to the rest of the body, object to washing that area 
of the skin which accumulates dirt more certainly and 
rapidly than any other. There is a nonsensical notion 
abroad that washing the scalp injures the hair. I 
should like to know why. No one tells us that it injures 
the hair of the chin, and one would make short work 
of any nurse who applied this remarkable principle to 
the seal}) of a baby. It is, of cou 

and perhaps more peculiarly inexplicable than most 
superstitions. 1 

For an}' given person, then, the way to pn s 
the hair as long as possible is to care for it on ordinary 
principles, such as would be applied to the health of 
the skin in any other part of the body. The health of 
the hair, of course, depends upon the health of the skin 
from which it grows. When this has been said and 
insisted upon, however, there will certainly remain j 
discrepancies when one man is compared with another. 
We have only asserted, however, that, for any 
person, the measures suggested will promote ami pro- 
long the life of the hair. Nevertheless, many people 
who neglect the hair altogether may show no sign of 
baldness at eighty, whilst in others, despite any amount 
of attention, the process will quite definitely begin in 

1 The explanation may be that when washing the scalp, 
we find that some hairs come out. Not knowing the elemen- 
tary fact that this loss will be duly replaced by any healthy 
hair-follicle, we imagine that these hairs are lost for ever. 



THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES 295 

the twenties. These are differences which cannot be 
explained at present, but there seems to be some evi- 
dence that they are transmissible by heredity, as in the 
case of the hair of the so-called rhinoceros mouse, lately 
studied by the Mendelians, which has a fine coat of 
hair in youth, but a naked skin at maturity. 

These individual variations are paralleled by the loss 
of colour. I should not like to say to what extent, if 
any, rational care of the scalp will postpone greyness 
of the hair, but it is certain that premature greyness 
is an inherent quality which can be transmitted by 
inheritance, and though baldness and greyness are quite 
independent, each depends upon the failure of the cor- 
responding group of cells or cell functions in the hair 
follicle. It seems really probable that the scalp hair 
is going the way of other hair. It may be that its 
better persistence in women is partly due to sexual se- 
lection as well as to the undoubtedly better conditions 
of women's headgear. If the hair of the male scalp is 
to persist as a human structure, it must be through 
sexual selection, inducing women to choose this charac- 
ter in their partners, as suggested in an early chapter. 
But as choice for such a character is entirely beneath 
human dignity, I am the last person to commend it. 
In point of fact, the commoner feminine tendency — 
despite what was earlier said — seems to be to like as 
little hair in men as possible, and from the point of 
view of health, hair may be allowed to go. In injuries 
to the scalp or skull, the hairless scalp, being almost 
certainly the cleanliest, will come off best, and the 
shaven-headed Indian, sitting unperturbed in the full 
glare of the sun, is proof that custom can inure the 
head to the absence of all protection, whether natural 
or artificial. 



296 



XIX 



CARE OF THE TEETH 



The care of the teeth is a subject which one approaches 
with reluctance, by no means because it is unimportant, 
but because there is difficulty in knowing what to say. 
As we have suggested in the case of the hair, and as 
is in general true for every organ and function of the 
body, an ounce of heredity is worth one hundred pounds 
of culture. Every doctrine as to the care of the hair 
or of the teeth may be utterly defied by some fortunate 
people with the most absolute impunity and the most 
admirable consequences ; and the converse statement is 
no less true. Nothing can be promised, tb.cn ; nor can 
any evil results be predicted if the best advice is ignored. 
The best possible advice, that one should be sprung 
from germinal matter such as produces good teeth, is 
impracticable, and the substantial importance of any 
other may almost be questioned. A further difficulty is 
that competent and thoughtful dentists, such as Dr. 
Sim Wallace, have lately been criticising the tooth- 
brush, in general and in particular, though we had 
thought that if there were anything certain it was 
that we should all brush the teeth at least twice a day. 
One thing is certain, however. It is that no one 
should permit himself to go about with even a single 
decayed and uncared-for tooth. Modern students of 
diet may assure us, as some do, that we should be 
grateful for the departure of our teeth, and should 
beware of replacing them ; the argument being that, 
with fewer teeth in later life, we are less apt to eat to 
excess. But whether or not this be so, it is certain 
that the decayed tooth is, as such, a source of danger, 
whether it is best repaired or removed, or whether, after 
removal, it should be replaced. Dental caries is due 
to microbes. It is their products that defile the oilour 
of the mouth in which they are permitted to thrive, and 
many modern pathologists are inclined to attach very 



CARE OF THE TEETH 297 

grave importance to the absorption of these products 
into the blood, whilst there can be little doubt that the 
swallowing of them plays into the hands of defective 
mastication in producing indigestion. No adult and 
no child should be permitted to suffer from these risks. 
If we note that about ninety per cent, of the children 
in our elementary schools have carious teeth, it is evi- 
dent that there is room for improvement here. 

At least we are still confining ourselves to what is 
certain in saying that the value of good dentistry can 
scarcely be over-estimated. The contrast The value 
between good and bad dentistry is at least of good 
as marked as in any other profession, and dentistry 
good dentistry is now extraordinarily good. One 
would require to be very poor indeed in order to be 
unable to afford the fees of a first-class dentist, even 
though each visit cost a week's income : for the posses- 
sion of good teeth, or at the very least the non-pos- 
session of decayed teeth, is very nearly if not quite 
a sine qua non of health. The price of the good den- 
tist's work has to be reckoned as against the amount 
of life which it provides for us. Further, we have to 
remember that it endures, as bad work does not. Other 
means of judgment failing, the reader may take it that 
the dentist who is ready to extract teeth should be 
practising some other profession, like the doctor who 
is free with his soporifics. The case of the tooth which 
really requires extraction under the conditions of mod- 
ern dentistry is extreme, and can only occur after the 
grossest neglect on the part of its owner. I question 
very much whether any one who has to wear artificial 
teeth before forty is not wholly to blame himself. As 
one boasting teeth such as are only found in an 
advanced stage of civilisation, the writer speaks with 
some personal knowledge. 

The possession of sound teeth and a clean mouth 
means, first of all, that we are free from a constant 



298 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

source of blood-poisoning. Even if it be denied that 
pernicious anaemia and other grave disorders can be 
traced to the septic mouth, it is certain that this is the 
cause of ill health quite serious enough. 

Further, it means very nearly complete immunity from 
neuralgia, of which by far the commonest cause is dental. 
One may note in passing that the doctor whom you con- 
sult for neuralgia, and who prescribes phenacetin whilst 
neglecting to examine or inquire after the teeth, is a 
man to be shunned as irresponsible and incompetent. 
No one averts or cures so much neuralgia as the dentist. 

Yet further, the absence of decayed teeth means the 
absence of channels of infection which may be of the 
most serious kind. Gum-boils are not of great im- 
portance though they be nuisance enough, but much 
more serious disorder of the jaws may follow from 
septic infection through the teeth, and there is very 
substantial evidence that, especially in children, decayed 
teeth are the channels of tuberculous infection which 
may show itself in glands of the neck, but may also 
attack organs of far greater importance. It has 
clearly to be understood that the decayed tooth defin- 
itely provides a clear route for microbes into the 
lymphatic vessels if not into the blood stream itself. 

And lastly, the presence of a sufficient number of 
healthy teeth — or, if so much cannot be said, of ade- 
quately repaired teeth — provides the possibility of ade- 
quate mastication, with all that this means for the first 
stage of digestion. 

It cannot be questioned that our teeth are inferior to 
those of our ancestors, and to those of savage peoples. 
The explanations commonly put forward 
denceof " concern themselves entirely with the treat- 
modern ment of the teeth, and especially with the 
teet neglect of mastication; not least in early 
years, when this process must promote the blood-supply 
to the growing teeth. The quality of our food is also 



CARE OF THE TEETH 299 

j . 

criticised ; many dentists suggesting — in direct opposi- 

|j tion to the Fletcherites — that we should take considera- 
ble quantities of fibrous food — of which a high propor- 
tion is quite indigestible and innutritious — in order to 
keep the teeth clean in a fashion superior to that which 
any tooth-brush can effect. It has to be recognised that 

Bthe admirable teeth of the savage have never known 
tooth-brush or dentifrice; and the same is true of 
| the skulls, each with thirty-two perfect teeth, which 
we dig up from the remote past in our own country or 
from the remains of ancient Egypt. 

The biologist, however, who alone is aware of the 
importance of heredity and natural selection in deter- 
mining the character of races, and of individuals too, 
will be inclined to suppose that our defective teeth are 
largely due to the cessation of natural selection at 
the present day. Everything proves that there are 
inherent variations in the quality of teeth, and it is 
extremely probable that, like other inherent qualities, 
these are transmissible by inheritance. Time must have 
been when they were of importance in the struggle for 
existence. It was of "survival-value" to have good 
teeth. Those who had bad teeth would, on the other 
hand, tend towards elimination. But for many genera- 
tions the importance of these characters as regards 
survival has been reduced to a minimum, and we should 
therefore expect, as in every other instance where selec- 
tion ceases, to find degeneration. 

And now we come to our difficulties. Are we, for 
instance, to follow the higlily competent observers who 
condemn the tooth-brush, or are we to fol- Dental 
low the customary course? hygiene 

I think we must continue to Use the tooth-brush, and 
that if we were wise we should use it after every meal. 
But the technique of its use must be attended to. The 
lateral motion of the brush merely cleanses the flat sur- 
face of the teeth, which is least in need of attention. 



300 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

The proper motion is up and down, so as to clear as 
far as may be the spaces between the teeth. He is 
fortunate in whom these spaces arc fairly considerable. 
A kind of movement of the brush similar to that of 
stropping a razor is to be employed. The brush should 
be small ; it should not be too hard, except, perhaps, 
for teeth of the very best quality, which are least in 
need of it at all. Every dentist knows that the injudi- 
cious use of too hard tooth-brushes, especially with side 
to side motion, and a badly chosen dentifrice, conduces 
to wearing away the enamel on the exposed aspect) 
especially of the canine teeth, which receive the full 
brunt of the scraping process that is misguidedlj 
employed. Many readers may thus convict th< 
of the responsibility for gaps in the enamel on the outer 
surface of the canine teeth, and may n nth 

regret that the dentist's ministrations in this neigh- 
bourhood are particularly apt to he painful. 

The dentifrice employed should be solid. Many 
pleasant fluids are on the market, most of which are 
no doubt antiseptic, and so far to be commended, but 
persons who have used them and found that tartar 
nevertheless accumulates upon the teeth may find that 
the substitution of a powder will remove this tartar, 
and prevent its subsequent accumulation. (I am dis- 
quieted by the expert argument that tartar is pro- 
tective, but probably the weight of the evidence is 
against this opinion.) It is, of com tial that 

the powder should be incapable of scratching the enamel 
of the teeth. Probably pumice-stone is to be condenu 
on this ground. The best dentifrice will be a powder 
capable of mechanically cleansing but not of injuring 
the teeth; it will be antiseptic, thereby opposing the life 
of the microbes which cause dental caries ; and it will be 
alkaline, thereby neutralising the acids which those 
microbes form, and which dissolve the salts of the teeth. 
Perhaps a half-and-half mixture of carbolic powder 






CARE OF THE TEETH 301 

and magnesia is as good a tooth-powder as any. It is 
cheap, especially if one does the mixing oneself and 
buys the ingredients in large quantities, such as a pound 
at a time. 

Though we are not here concerned with children, yet 
an important paper read before the Annual Meeting of 
the British Dental Association in 1908 is so significant, 
that a word or two regarding it must be added. What 
is said is perfectly relevant to the teeth of the adult. 
Mr. Edward Wallis quotes various statis- The teeth 
tics, which seem to show that the figure 90 of children 
per cent., quoted above as regards school children with 
defective teeth, is decidedly too low ; the figure is prob- 
ably above 95 per cent. Now it has been proved that 
the serious septic complications of scarlet fever are 
much more common and severe in cases where the mouth 
is dirty. Mr. Wallis has gone further, and has shown 
that children with the worst teeth are not only 
unhealthy in appearance, but below the average in 
weight. He found also that, as regards school work, 
they were below the average of their ages in nearly all 
cases, and sometimes markedly so. On the whole, he 
declares that "The mental and physical development of 
the children attending the public elementary schools is 
much hindered by the wholesale neglect from which their 
teeth are suffering; that their susceptibility to dis- 
eased conditions is much higher than it would be if 
their mouths were kept healthy; and, moreover, that 
should they be unfortunate enough to contract scarlet 
fever, the probability of their suffering from one or 
other of the serious complications that frequently follow 
this disease would be considerably increased. In short, 
the prospect of a child deriving the full benefit of the 
instruction provided in an elementary school is much 
impaired by the prevailing condition of the teeth ; and 
when the children enter upon wage-earning careers, they 
do so, in a great number of cases, with impaired con- 



302 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

stitutions, and with a physique unable to cope with the 
present-day struggle for existence." 

In Germany already they have begun to take this 
question seriously. It may fairly be described as of 
national importance, and if, on the demise of the pres- 
ent order of politicians, we are blessed with successors 
capable of seeing these things, it will be well for us. 

Of course, one does not decry politicians without 
reserve. Dead politicians ultimately furnish nourish- 
ment for grass, and so become useful. It is merely the 
very small minority of politicians that at any time 
happen to be alive against whom the man of science has 
a grudge. 






XX 303 

ON GROWING STOUT AND GROWING OLD 

Granted that most of us over-eat at all times, it is 
probable that we err most grievously during the warm 
weather. Since the weather is warm we r , 
require to produce less heat, and therefore resolutions 
need less fuel. As to this, our appetites, for the 
if they are given a fair chance, will com- summer 
monly inform us, but the recognised proceeding, of 
course, is to cheat and stimulate the appetite, so that 
its natural and desirable tendency to diminish may be 
1 prevented. Any credible assertion of the consequences 
;of over-eating is a public service, I make free to say; 
jbut we may admit that the psychological moment at 
| which to make and begin to keep a good resolution 
! about over-eating is the moment at which the tempter, 
which we call the (vitiated) appetite, speaks with less 
seductive voice. Thus it would be better to preach to 
I the too prosperous reader just when it is likeliest^that 
j the admonitions may be needed : during the hot weather, 
iwhen he has just begun to cozen his appetite under the 
I delusion that its comparative failure is a misfortune, 
; and not rather a lightening of temptation. But there 
'< is a second reason why our good resolutions as to over- 
. I eating should be made not on the 1st of January, but, 
say, the 1st of June or July. Not only will they be 
! easier to keep in the hot weather, but it is more neces- 
! sary that they should be kept. That which was per- 
j haps not a greatly excessive diet six months ago is 
I certainly an excessive diet now, simply because less of 
; it can be properly utilised by the body. The conse- 
1 quences of over-eating are equally bad whether in winter 
i or summer, but the term is a wholly relative one, 
! depending amongst other things, upon the exter- 
nal temperature, and we are more liable to offend 
I against the laws of nature in this respect in summer 
I time. 
i ~- ' " 



304 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 



Let us take the case of the middle-aged or elderly 
man, and ask ourselves a simple question : what is 
John Bull's his normal contour? Now, this lias been 
corporation answered, and the answer is accepted as 
true, by many generations of draughtsmen, and not a 
day passes but there is instilled into the mind of the 
newspaper reader the notion that a prosperous gentle- 
man of middle-age should have a contour such as that 
of the John Bull of the cartoonists. Yet to the critical 
eye John Bull's corporation thus depicted is nothing 
other than a deformity, a sign of physical decadence, 
just as objectionable in its own way as extreme cada- 
verousness. I do not say that John Bull should be 
depicted as slim as the boys whose youthful outline adds 
such grace to the cricket at Lord's when the Schools 
or 'Varsities play each other. As John Bull reaches 
maturity he should certainly put on flesh, and, in con- 
sequence, he will become physically stronger, but the 
person presented by the cartoonists as typical of our 
national prosperity must have the utmost difficulty in 
lacing his own boots, could not catch a horse- 'bus, let 
alone a motor-'bus, is evidently incapable of any kind 
of prolonged exertion, and almost certainly suffers from 
fatty infiltration of the heart. These are not signs of 
personal prosperity. 

Now observe our ingenious euphemism. In the whole 
realm of life there are no two tissues more contrasted 
Putting on than flesh and fat. Flesh is muscle, con- 
flesh — or fat sisting of extremely active cells of living 
protoplasm; fat also consists of cells, but they contain 
practically no protoplasm at all, and instead of it are 
simply filled with lifeless oil. Fat cells are scarcely 
more worthy to be called alive than the cells which com- 
pose our visible nails or hair. Fat is in no sense part 
of the living tissue of the body. It may act as a 
reserve of food ; it may serve to relieve pressure and 
to retain the warmth of the bodv ; but muscular * 



ON GROWING STOUT AND OLD 305 

;is crammed with life, and directly serves its purposes. 
;We recognise this distinction, whilst ignoring it, when 
we politely say that a man is "putting on flesh;" but 
ihe is never doing anything of the sort when we say so. 
•;He is putting on fat; nay, more, if he continues the 
process he will very soon begin to replace flesh by fat. 
iHis muscle cells, including those of his heart, will degen- 

Eerate, die, and become replaced by lifeless oil or fat. 
I say advisedly, then, that when a man is said to be 
putting on flesh he is losing flesh, for flesh is muscle, 
and the muscles of a man who is becoming stout are 
v undergoing either simple atrophy or else atrophy with 
fatty degeneration and infiltration. 

No one has any business whatever to be as stout as 
the John Bull of our artists — who are wise in what 
they select for the touch of caricature. That gentle- 
man's corporation is a sign not of health but disease. 
He eats too much and works too little. His blood 
pressure is too high, his arteries are becoming hard, his 
power of thought is becoming impaired; in due course 
he will have a "shock." If he recovers from it, his bad 
habits will soon recur and he will have another. If the 
i! state of the nation and its probable future has any 
i correspondence to the physical state of the grossly over- 
,i fed and degenerate person whom the cartoonists por- 
ay, it is high time that the national will was made 
f and our possessions appropriately bequeathed. 

As a German writer pointed out long ago, "the whole 
secret of prolonging one's life consists in doing nothing 
to shorten it," and there is nothing more certain than 
that over-eating shortens life. It is only quite lately, 
however, that we have begun to understand this ques- 
tion, and one of the discoveries we have made is that 
though obesity shortens life and is a sign of over- 
eating, yet many a man may over-eat who does not 
become obese. There is no question here of making 
unpleasant remarks about stout people alone. The 



306 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

truth is that very few of us indeed can escape a gen- 
eral condemnation, whether we are stout or not. Thus, 
there is no need for the stout person to point out that 
he eats no more than his neighbour who is not stout. 
Most probably his neighbour also eats excessively, but 
merely has a different method of disposing of the sur- 
plus. Now, the point — already insisted upon — is that 
for every individual, according to his bodily structure, 
his habits as to exercise, clothing, work, worry, and so 
forth, there is on any given day a certain amount of 
food which is the best for his health, and all beyond 
that is merely an excess — which is not disposed of as 
easily as water by a duck's back. Matter is indestructi- 
ble, we remember, and if, having use for a certain 
amount of matter, we deposit more within ourselves, 
something has to be done with it. It is quite p 
that in some cases the least amount of harm d 
effected by turning the superfluity into fat and storing 
it away as conveniently as possible. Though this is 
bad enough in many ways, it may be less injurious 
than the attempt of the body to consume and destroy 
the superfluous fuel. In many cases this is done, so 
that thousands of people who eat far more than is good 
for them never become stout, though they may be eat- 
ing more largely and doing themselves more harm than 
their plump neighbours, at whom they point the finger 
of ascetic scorn. 

Now, it is really nothing to me that my neighbour 
should be too stout, but it is a serious matter to me, 
Age and the a s a student and lover of society, that the 
arteries mental powers of the middle-aged and 

elderly of both sexes should fall in any way below the 
level which may be expected of them. Perhaps my 
elders will forgive me for preaching at them if I aver 
that my prime motive is a recognition of the value of 
experience. Human action is controlled by intelli. 
and not instinct; but though intelligence can learn 



ON GROWING STOUT AND OLD 307 

everything, it has everything to learn. For myself, I 
profoundly believe in government by the elderly in 
years. It is the fact of biography that the greatest 
works in philosophy and political thought and science 
and organisation have been the achievements of the 
elderly in years. What could be more natural? Other 
things being equal, the mere lapse of time, the mere 
length of education, must tell. 

But now observe the famous dictum that "a man is 
as old as his arteries." For myself, I prefer to say 
that a man is as old as his mind, and that a man's 
body is as old as his arteries ; but mind is correlated 
with brain, and all nervous tissue is absolutely and 
continuously at the mercy of its blood-supply. There 
is, therefore, a direct correlation between the health 
of a man's arteries and the health of his mental powers, 
as every doctor knows. The great achievements of 
thought which stand to the credit of elderly men and old 
men were most certainly associated with young arteries. 
Such a man — quite a rarity in modern society — is in 
effect a young man with an old man's experience. He, 
and he alone, can make the best of both ages, and where 
he exists he may be found to dominate and to lead his 
class, whatever it be. 

In consequence of recent investigations, it seems 
extremely probable that before long the doctors will 
be compelled on all hands to denounce over-eating as 
probably the chief cause of the premature arterial 
degeneration, involving premature physical degenera- 
tion, which is one of the lamentable facts of our time. 
Our surplus food is, in effect, a mild poison, or the 
source of poisonous substances produced within the 
body. Circulating in the blood-vessels continuously, 
these poisons naturally injure the delicate living cells 
which line their walls, and arterial degeneration follows, 
with consequences which show themselves in every organ 
of the body, but most markedly, of course, in the most 



308 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

sensitive and delicate and need}' of them all, which is 
the brain. Arterio-sclerosis, or arterial hardening, is 
one of the most important of all diseases, though the 
public hears little of it. I am not stating anything 
novel or sensational. Every doctor knows the truth of 
the saying that "a man is as old as his arteries/' and 
great medical conferences will devote themselves for 
days to nothing but this one subject. This morbid 
arterial change may actually be felt by the doctor at 
almost any elderly wrist in the country, and the 
wrist at which it is felt is elderly, whatever its 
owner's years. Arterial degeneration is the cause of 
practically all cases of apoplexy or shock. No man 
can burst a healthy blood-vessel from within. The 
bursting is a mere accident, dependent upon the fact 
that the vessel is diseased. But, quite apart from these 
calamities, arterial hardening is a personal and national 
curse, especially as it effects the efficiency, the capacity 
for adaptation, and the energy of those who rule us, 
whether in the pulpit, or the press, or Parliament, or 
elsewhere. There appears to be a tendency towards the 
incursion of the young man and the driving out of the 
old, but what I want to see is young heads on old 
shoulders, elderly men witli soft arteries, who will com- 
bine the mental activity and fitness of youth with the 
experience of age. Most of our elderly men suffer from 
chronic food-poisoning with arterial hardening, and 
they need some one to tell them so. This is quite an 
unselfish task, for all the virtues of youth lie in its 
soft arteries, so to say, and if the middle-aged know 
how to keep their own arteries soft, and so their own 
minds plastic, inexperienced youth will have longer to 
wait for the prizes it desires. 

Regarded sub specie atcrnitatis, a man is as old as 
his mind, and of the properly constituted mind no age 
can be predicated, for the psychical does not recognise 
the category of time. On the other hand, we all know 



ON GROWING STOUT AND OLD 309 

adult men and women who have never really grown up. 
The "music-hall mind" is practically identical, as Pro- 
fessor Earl Barnes has pointed out, with G ld age of 
the "twelve-year-old mind." Of those we body and 
daily meet, not a few have the minds of of min d 
mere pre-pubertal children plus a certain amount of 
worldly experience and more than a child's control over 
the immediate expression of its emotions. At the other 
end of life are met many old men and women who retain 
the optimism normal to healthy youth, and its avidity 
for new ideas, plus a nicer discrimination — and that 
"restless energy" which, as Goethe said, "alone proves 
the man." If we agree that a man is as old as his 
mind — that is to say, as old as his essential self — these 
elderly people are really still in their prime, and should 
properly be regarded as ageless. 

The lower animals, in general, may be said to die — 
their gigantic infant mortality apart — from old age, 
murder, starvation, and, to a quite subordinate extent 
in the case of animals in their natural state, from dis- 
ease. Man does not die in appreciable numbers^ of 
murder, or accident, or starvation. The overwhelming 
cause of death amongst our kind is disease. The infec- 
tious diseases, including tuberculosis, are responsible for 
the greater part of the death-roll at all the earlier 
ages, but it is disease of another kind that is responsi- 
ble for nearly all the deaths of the elderly. Having 
passed through measles and whooping-cough, and the 
like, acquiring an immunity which persists, or having 
passed the ages at which we are most susceptible to 
them, we should thereafter die only of old age. But 
deaths which can be properly ascribed to this cause 
are extremely rare. Analogy with the case of the lower 
animals, noting the proportion of the developmental 
period to the whole life, suggests most forcibly that the 
life of man should properly be far longer than it is. 
The hale and mentally alert centenarian should really 



310 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

be a commonplace, and the octogenarian who can 
effectively criticise his juniors and add to his life's 
achievements, as Lord Kelvin did and Mr. Galton does, 
should be the rule rather than the rare exception. 
Nowadays we have a greatly lowered death-rate, an 
unprecedented control over disease, and vast stores of 
physiological knowledge utterly unknown to former 
generations ; but I very much doubt whether we produce 
more really living elderly men and women than did the 
ancient world. The average duration of life has enor- 
mously increased, but society does not gain, nor yet the 
individual, as we should if it were not for some causes 
of senility and premature death which we have not yet 
controlled. I assert, in short, that, apart from cancer 
and one or two other maladies, the vast majority of 
deaths even after fifty or sixty years, are rightly to be 
regarded as premature: and I a-k the reader to con- 
sider with me the deplorable fact, to which must be 
added another, in some ways yet more deplorable, that, 
of many who do live at these ages, the distinctively 
human life has really expired. They scarcely do more 
than cumber the ground, reminding us of the saving 
of Schiller, too often true, that "the lamp of genius " 
burns quicker than the lamp of life," and of the dictum 
of Huxley, lately expounded by Professor Osier, that 
men of science should be pole-axed at <ixty lest, by , 
hardening or "softening'' of the brain, they should 
retard further progi\ ,88. 

There is something radically wrong in an epoch 
wherein we hear so frequently the cry "too old at 
"Too old forty." A creature that takes twenty-five 
at forty" years or so to reach maturity has no busi- 
ness to be too old at forty. There is no such instance 
in the sub-human world. And, as a matter of fact, 
even if we confine ourselves to what is in the main a 
of neuro-muscular skill, we find that the finest batsman 
of the day is thirty-six or seven, that he broke all 



ON GROWING STOUT AND OLD 311 

records, including his own, a year or two ago; and 
that, a short time ago, the champion, then what in 
cricket is a veteran among veterans — forty-seven to be 
exact — set up a new record by scoring a thousand runs 
before the end of May. In other sports, John Roberts 
and many more might be named. 

But least of all should we hear the cry "too old at 
forty" when, as I have often pointed out, the dominance 
of mind over muscle as an instrument of survival-value is 
more conspicuous than ever before in the world's his- 
tory. If pedestrianism were still the first need of man, 
as it was, I suppose, when he lived by the chase, "too 
old at forty" might be, and doubtless was, inevitable 
and intelligible; to-day, when mental qualities (and 
experience not the least) determine fitness, "too old at 
forty" is a monstrous anachronism. Yet I am assured 
that only too often 3 however well-intentioned the em- 
ployer, the phrase fits the facts and must be acted 
upon. 

I am quite prepared to believe that longevity is a 
congenital character — if the phrase be permitted — and 
may be transmitted by inheritance. I do not need to 
go far to find an example of the most striking family 
longevity. But one cannot say more than "prepared 
to believe," in the absence of evidence which fully ex- 
cludes the factor of the conduct of life in such cases. 
In the instance to which I refer the remarkable lon- 
gevity of two numerous generations is associated with 
strict canons of life, temperance in all things from child- 
hood upwards, and existence under highly favourable 
conditions. It would be unscientific in the extreme to 
regard this as a case of inborn tendency to longevity, 
in the failure of proof that the conduct of life has not 
been the determining factor. 

And this brings me to my point, which is best stated 
in the words already quoted: "The whole secret^ of 
prolonging life consists in doing nothing to shorten it." 



312 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

Now, the criterion of age is the health of the arteries. 
Pitiable indeed is the spectacle of the men and women 
who concern themselves so seriously with trifles in this 
regard, whilst the weightier matters of the law of life 
go wholly unregarded. Their anxiety concerns itself 
with such things as crow's-feet and wrinkles, grey hair 
or baldness, which are all cutaneous matters, and, being 
cutaneous, are alike conspicuous and insignificant. The 
senility that is onl}' skin-deep La a very superficial affair, 
and every one knows that it may co-exist with splendid 
vigour and skill of nerve and mind. One of the best and 
fastest bowlers in England lias the least hair — almost 
as little as a certain fine batsman — at the top of the 
averages as I write — who, like him, has played for his 
country. As to grey hair, a much better sign of 
cutaneous senility than baldness, no one but the stupid 
employer takes that seriously, one would think. I do 
not care that my friend has a senile skin if he has the 
soft arteries of health, the heart of a boy, and the mind 
of mature manhood withal. 

As I begin to recount some of the chief causes which 
shorten life, I am reminded of the tale, recently pub- 
The causes lished, of the school-teacher in America 
of senility who, asked the shape of the earth, replied, 
"Wal, some like it round and some like it flat, and 
I've jinnerly tcached it both ways.'' This v 
eminently judicious proceeding, but he who is prepared 
to teach both ways according to taste is a liar and a 
traitor to truth and mankind, however popular or suc- 
cessful he may be. Thus one must preach the ungrate- 
ful truth that many of us ruin our arteries and thereby 
beckon to senility by chronic over-feeding, which is 
none other than chronic food-poisoning. We dig our 
graves with our teeth. I do not believe that every- 
thing comes to him who waits: rather does everything 
come to him who works or to him who goes to meet it. 
The proverb is true of death, however, yet how few of 



ON GROWING STOUT AND OLD 313 

us do not run to meet him half way by a slow suicide 
which no one reprobates, but which is a thousand times 
more reprehensible than the overwhelming majority of 
the suicides which we call disgraceful. 

We have yet to learn that the changes which the 
pathologists call degeneration are really the changes 
of intoxication. Even in technical pathology we are 
now learning that this is so. The pulmonary changes 
in consumption were for centuries regarded as degen- 
erative. The patient's tissues went into a premature 
"decline." We now know that the case is one of poison- 
ing, and we have identified the poisoner. Most phy- 
sicians still retain, however, a similarly false conception 
of arterial hardening and rigidity and brittleness, with 
all it involves. When such arteries are met in a man 
of forty, the phrase is "premature senile degeneration." 
It is nothing of the sort, observes the pathology which 
knows that words, as Hobbes said, are the counters of 
wise men but the money of fools only. It is a case of 
chronic intoxication. The causes may be food-products, 
or alcohol, or lead, or possibly tobacco — though this 
last is extremely doubtful — and however difficult it may 
be for the doctor to be candid with his patients, I, who 
have none, may be candid here. You will find a man — a 
clerk, perhaps — who, in order to do his duty to his 
family, will dye the grey hairs at his temple, whilst, if 
he but knew and would slide his finger down a little 
further so as to feel his temporal artery as it passes 
upwards in front of the ear, he might there find facts 
immeasurably more important, and far more completely 
under his own control. 

If the reader asks me how to keep his arteries young, 
I reply that this is almost the whole question of per- 
sonal hygiene; but its substance would take the form 
"Thou shalt not," many times repeated. The injunc- 
tions for him who would play cricket with his great- 
grandchildren or rule the State at eighty are not posi- 



314 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

tive but negative. There are many sources of the 
blood-poisoning which leads to arterial poisoning. The 
poisons may be of external origin, like those I have 
mentioned, or of internal origin. Violent and persistent 
exercise, for instance, involves not only the raising of 
the pressure of the blood, which naturally compels the 
arteries to become thickened beyond their capacity for 
maintenance, but also the production of muscular 
fatigue-products which are definitely toxic. I would 
repeat the warning given by Professor Clifford Allbutt 
at the Royal Institution a few years ago, to the man 
whose blood-pressure remains persistently too high. 
He will soon grow "old," and will do well to consult a 
physician. The best sort for him is one of years and 
experience — but soft arteries. 



XXI 315 

THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 

In the last chapter we discussed certain of the physical 
aspects of growing old, but there are others. Here 
we may try to discover the secret of perpetual youth 
as that secret is known to the happy few. Very likely 
heredity plays a part here, but if we make formal 
recognition of that probability, we may ignore it for 
the future, admitting, however, that we cannot expect 
compliance with ideal methods of life to achieve similar 
results in all cases. 

Merely referring the interested reader to the work 
of Metchnikoff, a few considerations, most of which 
are not there to be found, may be noted. Natural old 
First of all, it may be wholly denied that, age 
after the period of adolescence, years are any real cri- 
terion of age. It is true for the tree that its very 
structure measures the yearly revolution of our planet 
round the sun. But we neither lose nor lay a layer 
of our persons in correspondence with this revolution. 
It is nothing to us. So far as body is concerned, the 
arteries are the best criterion of age, and their state is 
not dependent upon the passage of time as such. From 
the physical standpoint a man is as old as he feels. 
The woman who decides to have no more birthdays is 
perfectly warranted in so doing so long as her mind 
remains young. There is no need to take count of 
planetary revolutions if one feels as young as ever. 
Nothing will arrest senile changes in the skin, but it 
is possible to prevent senile changes in the soul. 

As to the nature of normal old age in man, we really 
know very little. We can only infer it from the 
observation of animals, and as most of the animals 
which we observe are domesticated, over-fed, and under- 
exercised, there is a source of fallacy there too. As 
we have seen, most of what we call old age m man is a 
morbid deterioration, the beginnings of which may be 



816 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

well-marked in the thirties, or, on the other hand, may 
fail to appear even in the eighties, except only so far 
as the skin is concerned. 

Of course, we cannot avoid recognising that there is 
a difference between the child's mind, or, if you prefer. 
Young t ne child's nervous system, and the adult 

minds and mind and nervous system. This we may 
ol( * and must admit without, however, having 

to admit that the change we recognise is a progressive 
one. The difference between ten and twenty — or even, 
I fear, between twenty and thirty — is a necessary one. 
But it by no means follows that any substantial differ- 
ence between thirty and sixty is necessary. Here and 
there we can all find notable instances to the contrary. 

As compared with the child, the adult is less capable 
of making nervous acquirements. On this score he is 
inferior. In fact, it is doubtless true that, on all 
essential grounds, the adult mind is inferior to the 
child's mind: breadth of knowledge not being an essen- 
tial ground. The power of making acquirements, or of 
learning by experience and practice, is an expression of 
adaptation. Every living organ or function, in losing 
its power of adaptation, is on the high road towards 
death. All such power gone, there is either absolute 
death, or death in life. Beware, then, of the loss of 
power to change your mind. This gone, you will never 
change anything outside you : you will never be a cause 
again, except as an obstacle is a cause. Even at twenty 
or thirty our modifiability is less than what it was. You 
will never learn to play the violin unless you began 
before you were ten: if the question whether you play 
arises, you need not answer, "I don't know, I've never 
tried." If you have pla} r ed other ball games — and you 
are much to be pitied if 3*011 have not — you may make 
some sort of a cricketer on taking up the game at 
twenty, but you will never learn to hook fast bowling. 
Childhood is the time to learn, because it is the time of 



THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 317 

highest modifiabilitj. After childhood has passed, our 
modifiability, adaptability, educability, capacity to 
learn and to change, falls to the level of maturity, 
whatever that level be for the person in question ; but 
it should not appreciably fall below that level for half 
a century. 

The child beats us also in memory and in curiosity; 
that is, of course, provided it be an uneducated child. 
It need hardly be said that the child subjected to the 
process of mental destruction we call education is an 
object for a pathological museum. If it has long 
enough been told not to ask questions, and if, by the 
process we call training the memory, its memory has 
been sufficiently obliterated, the child may be as stupid 
as an adult. That, however, is another story, which I 
shall consider in another volume. 

It follows from what has been said that young peo- 
ple, provided that they be uneducated — as Wordsworth 
and Spencer and most other consummate men of genius 
were uneducated — are good company for everybody. 
They are, of course, good company for each The va i ue 
other, and the solitary child is greatly to of young 
be pitied, but they are excellent company company 
for their seniors. It is not merely that your education 
scarcely begins until you have children to do it for you, 
but that they keep you young. The great principle 
is, in Herbert Spencer's words, "Be a boy as long as 
you can." If you can spare some of your hours from 
the dark and vain ways of adult men to the company of 
children, you will find that their interest in things and 
their joy of living are infectious, as every mental state 
is infectious through that omnipresent mental force 
we call suggestion. Thus old people can be visibly 
observed growing younger when they are put in young 
company. Nothing could be more singularly untrue, 
on its physical side, than the ancient belief that an old 
man could be revivified and rejuvenated by a girl's com- 



318 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

pany. But, on the psychical side there is no more 
salient truth. 

I have seen an old woman who had all her life been 
a nurse of young children, age on superannuation 
almost as visibly as Rider Haggard's "She" when her 
power left her. The arrival of the child of a third 
generation provided her with new work, her "rheuma- 
tism" disappeared, the eye brightened, life became 
worth living again, and for nearly four 3-ears past she 
has been growing steadily 3-oungcr — so that, in course 
of time, she and her young charge, between whom on 
our ordinary reckoning there are nearly seventy years, 
should be just about the same essential age. The reader 
must have made similar observations. We have here, of 
course, a ready explanation of the fact that, if other 
tilings be only approximately equal, mothers and 
fathers look, feel, and arc younger at any given age 
than their unmarried contemporaries. It is not easy 
to find good things to say about death, and I d 
know that the theologians help us much. But at lean 
if there were no death there could be no parenthood. 

Though it is true that we cannot learn the violin at 
twenty, and in general that the possibility of making 
Man may neuro-muscular acquirements becomes se- 
progress verely limited after youth is past, yet so 

indefinitely f ar M t ] ie higher attributes of the mind are 
concerned, we should progress indefinitely. This capac- 
ity for unlimited mental growth is our privilege, just 
because we are intelligent and not instinctive beings. 
The psychologists tell us that, after all, intelligence 
is none other than instinct become plastic, and there are 
foreshadowings of this plasticity in many of the higher 
animals. But only in ourselves is it limitless. So far 
as the higher mind is concerned, we may learn and 
change and grow in our eighties or nineties as at any 
other age. One only wishes that convention permitted 
free comment on a case of this kind with which I am 



THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 319 

fortunate enough to be familiar — a great student of 
heredity and the mind, promulgator of the new and 
supreme science of eugenics or race-culture, discoverer 
of the anti-cyclone, the variety of finger-prints, the non- 
transmissibility of acquired characters, the law of filial 
regression, and much more than all this — who is always 
the youngest man in the room, has the enthusiasm and 
the optimism of a boy, with a thousand times the judg- 
ment, and has only one complaint to make of his years — 
that they dissuade his juniors from offering criticisms. 
I am sure that at no past period in his life, which is 
nearly completing its ninth decade, has his mind made 
more advance in a given time than it does now — that is, 
of course, since the end of adolescence. Can you imag- 
ine how wise he must be? 

One of the secrets of youth, then, is to keep work- 
ing: not necessarily money-making, but working. 
Everything, except old age, comes to him The secrets 
who works. Not only is it better to wear of perpetual 
out than to rust out, but it takes much youth 
longer. Indeed the mark of the living organism is that 
it does not wear out because, unlike other machines, it 
has the power of internal re-creation. We have been 
evolved by the struggle for existence, and are therefore 
strugglers by constitution. When we cease to work, we 
degenerate. In five years, after retiring from business 
or from work, a man commonly ages more than he did 
in twenty preceding years, unless he is fortunate enough 
to have some hobby or interest — children or china, or 
whatever it be— that saves him. If he finds no other 
occupation, he spends more and more time over his 
meals, and so bad physical conditions go hand m hand 
with bad psychical conditions to hurry him into the 
grave — where alone he is useful. 

And just as one must keep on working, so one must 
keep on learning— simply learning for learning's sake 
is worth while at this later time of life. The learning 



320 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of Greek roots, the vagaries of irregular verbs and 
particles and the like, is a pitiable exercise for the 
child's mind. A great deal of the subject matter of 
what we at present call education would have a useful 
place, however, in filling the otherwise unfilled hours 
of elderly people. At least, if they can find nothing 
better to learn, it were better to memorise a page of 
irregular verbs than to learn nothing. 

Another cardinal rule for the preservation of youth 
is to preserve the optimism of youth. It may be said 

Never * na * *^ s * s 'J lls * wna ^ * ne °^ man i because 

surrender he is old, cannot do, but that is only partly 
your true. If you find occupation, and if you 

op lmism recognise the danger of incipient pessimism, 
it is possible to protect yourself. I cannot do better 
than quote a page, one of his very best, from my dis- 
tinguished friend, Professor Forel of Zurich, a master 
amongst masters: — 

"The modern man wears himself out in restless earn- 
ing in order that he shall be able to rest in old age. 
But when the man who has worked all the time gets 
old he discovers that without work he can no longer 
exist. Only the idler and the pleasu re seek er who has 
squandered bis life becomes even lazier than ever in his 
old age (if that is possible), because he has never exer- 
cised his neurones. If any one wants as happy an old 
age as possible, lie must first of all never betray his 
optimism; second, never brood over the past and the 
dead ; third, work away to the last breath, to keep as 
much of his cerebral elasticity as possible. The pes- 
simistic, peevish discontent of so many selfish old men 
and women usually rests (when it is not pathological) 
on their inactivity. They want to sit down in peace, 
and instead of peace find discontent with the world and 
themselves. The quarrelsome grandmothers and moth- 
ers-in-law, as well as the tyrannical old men who demand 
everything and do nothing, may trace their bad pecu- 



THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 321 

liarities, so far as they are acquired and not inherited, 
partly to changes in the brain that come on with age, 
but partly, as we have seen, to a petty, selfish stunting 
of their spirit, and to the lack of an ideal end in life. 
They busy themselves in blaming and tormenting their 
children, grandchildren, children-in-law, and nephews, 
instead of using what is left of their powers in useful 
work. But the old man whose brain is still sound, and 
who is not ashamed to keep on thinking and working, 
rejoices, even in the evening of his life, in the world 
and people and the happiness of youth, and enjoys love 
and consideration, instead of being the object of aver- 
sion or ridicule." 

Without any derogation to the fine work of Metch- 
nikoff, it may be suggested that advice like this is 
worth an ocean of sour milk : only, unfortunately, like 
the out-patient of any hospital, most of us desire that 
the doctor shall order something to swallow and reck 
little of his advice. 

Special attention may be directed to the advice not 
to brood over the past and the dead. This also is of 
cardinal importance for the elderly. You must look 
forward. The penalty for the backward gaze is the 
penalty that was exacted from Lot's wife: you are 
turned into a pillar of salt, or something equally desti- 
tute of life. It is well and right to love and admire the 
past, to be grateful to it, and to learn from it. It is 
never right to live for it. This is the only too common 
tendency of nations, institutions, and individuals, and 
the consequent fate of all is the same. The nation or 
institution or individual that would survive must live 
for the future. There may or may not be evidence of 
purpose in nature ; there must be evidence of purpose 
in man, or he is doomed. The mark of the old man who 
is not really old is the forward gaze. To live for the 
day that is dead is to be dead to the day that is ahve. 
Browning, who was a psychologist, knew this, and m 



322 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

one of his very greatest poems has told us so. The 
grammarian went on learning and looking forward, 
notwithstanding the passage of years. His motto 
was "No end to learning . . . what's time? Leave 
Now for dogs and apes! Man has Forever." He 
had a "great tiling to pursue," had no time to look 
behind him nor to anticipate the approach of death, 
and so he lived to be old, and even when he was 
"dead from the waist down," his mind was still living 
and learning. 

The lamentable case is where the lamp of geniu-. as 
Schiller said, burns quicker than the lamp of life; or 
Death of rather where, genius or no genius, the body 

the mind survive the soul. In such cases death is 

a boon to the individual and to society. A- N 
said, to live is to change. When the mind loses the 
capacity to change, it is no longer alive. I have heard 
the question of the immortality of the soul dist 
by persons in whose own case at least the bouI was 
obviously dead, and had been for years. Any question 
as to what would happen to it on the demise of the 
body was superfluous. Some of these dead souls are 
very malodorous, and highly injurious to the public 
health. The man who loves and admires ideal old age, 
wherein experience and judgment and charity and 
patience have been added to, but have not replaced the 
enthusiasm and optimism and modifiability of youth, 
must in similar measure deplore, if not loathe, that real 
senility to be found at all ages, which has lost all ideals, 
all purpose, all onward vision, and spreads nothing but 
contagious death. 

It is impossible, I believe, to over-estimate the advan- 
tages which the society of the future will reap from 
the application of the scientific study of the natural 
history of the mind — when old men as well as young 
shall dream dreams, and shall lead the world instead of 
lagging behind it. 



THE ELIXIR OF YOUTH 323 

Dr. Clouston, in his remarkable work on the "Hygiene 
of Mind" — the writing of which the present writer is 
proud to have suggested — has an admira- Dr Houston's 
ble chapter on the decadent period. A few study of 
remarks from that may be quoted, but we ol( * a S e 
may specially note that on all essential points Dr. 
Clouston is in absolute agreement with the words of 
Professor Forel cited above. These are elderly men, 
though doubtless with soft arteries, as their writings 
prove, who have had very exceptional opportunities for 
the study of this subject throughout many past 
decades, and if one adds to theirs the name of Dr. 
George Keith, I hope the reader will admit that what 
is said in this chapter is said on the very highest 
authority obtainable. 

Dr. Clouston, like every one else who understands 
this subject, insists upon the value of occupation and 
purpose in old age, or rather in the prevention of old 
age. He points out that the hygiene of this period 
should begin in middle life — "over-work, over-worry, 
idleness and aimlessness, love of over-eating and drink- 
ing, and too little exercise during the period of man- 
hood and womanhood are the things to be avoided dur- 
ing maturity, if old age is to be indefinitely postponed." 
As the years go on, the diet should become restricted 
and simpler, fruits, vegetables, cereals, and fish being 
representative of the good, whilst, as we have seen, the 
ordinary scientific criticisms of alcohol become more 
urgent than ever. The following remark will support 
what I have said above— "The typical environment of 
old age consists of a quiet home, sons, daughters, and 
grandchildren, not necessarily living in the home, but 
frequently accessible." Cicero knew this, as readers of 
his famous work De Senectute will remember. Again, 
Dr. Clouston insists upon the importance of the con- 
scious effort to preserve the youth in one — "it is best 
carried out by seeing young people 2 by efforts to sym- 



324 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

pathise with them, and even by following at times and 
in a mild way some youthful pursuit or game. . . . 
Loneliness is certainly bad for the old." The jealousy 
of the young which is seen in some old people is thus 
disastrous to themselves. To know this may not cure 
them, but they should know it. 

If these principles were generally known and acted 
upon, the burden of the old generation upon the 
younger would be transformed into a boon. Human 
progress would be accelerated, and the reverence for old 
age — which some of us were taught in our youth, but 
which, like other excellent Victorian beliefs, is now out 
of fashion — would be warranted by the existence on all 
hands of old people of both sexes, whose claim to "hon- 
our, love, obedience, troops of friend-," was indisputa- 
ble. The time will come, perhaps, when the term ''old 
woman" will be no longer one of contempt, but will 
indicate a very wise and precious and beautiful thing, 
such as an old woman may and ought to be. The 
importance of this whole subject is increased by the 
circumstance that the current fall in the death-rate 
does not depend upon a diminution in the infant mor- 
tality, scandalously easy though that diminution be, but 
mainly upon the keeping alive of elderly people Under 
modern conditions. My hope is that this chapter may 
serve in some small degree, at least, towards keeping 
alive their minds as well as their bodies. 



XXII 325 

THE CARE OF THE SENSES 

Though we have travelled far onwards since the days 
of John Locke, it remains more conspicuously true than 
ever for the psychologist that sensation is the begin- 
ning of mind; nor can he question at all the dictum 
of Ruskin that acuity, delicacy, accuracy, and discrimi- 
nation in sensation are the marks of the high type in 
mankind. It is some little consolation at least that 
the wretched creature who offers you matches probably, 
feels less acutely for himself than you do for him. 

Thus, if man is really to reach human stature, the 
sedulous care and education of the senses is a fore- 
most necessity — incalculably more important than the 
culture of his muscles, which may be an end in itself 
for the hippopotamus but not for homo erectus. One 
is tempted to forget that the present volume is designed 
for the adult, who is already in great measure made 
or marred, and to devote some space to the study of 
the ideal means by which the senses may be trained for 
the lasting benefit of both mind and body, as in the 
case of the fortunate children who were lately dancing 
in London with Miss Isadora Duncan. The reader, 
however, is past the hope of such opportunities for 
himself. Here we are, of this generation — products, in 
great measure, of the blindness and folly, and despite 
of everything that nature cries aloud, which governed 
the early education of most of us. We may make up 
our minds that this shall not occur again, but so far 
as we are concerned, it has occurred, and we must 
make the best of the results. 

It is well to assure ourselves that attention to the 
well-being of the eyes is worth while. An American 
writer, Dr. Gould, has lately gained much Eyes and 
attention for the thesis that eye-strain is eye-strain 
responsible for most of the minor ills of civilised life. 
He has turned to the biographies of many distinguished 



326 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

men and found evidence that satisfied him there. In 
the case of Herbert Spencer, however, had Dr. Gould 
waited for the publication of the Autobiography, he 
would there have found that the characteristic symp- 
toms of "eye-strain" were produced in that case whether 
the patient read or was read to. I offer this as merely 
a single instance of the fashion in which an author 
with a theory is apt to be misled. I doubt whether 
one expert oculist in a thousand retiring from practice 
would accept more than, say, ten per cent, of Dr. 
Gould's theory; but even that ten per cent, is of great 
importance, and, despite all his rashness and exc 
statement, Dr. Gould has undoubtedly done great 
ice in drawing attention to the matter. We may cer- 
tainly say that the reader who suffers from indeter- 
minate and various symptoms, such as headache, dys- 
pepsia, and the like, will do well to consult an oculi>t, 
even though the chances be perhaps a hundred to one 
that the cause of his trouble is not his eyes, but his 
bowel. 

Granting, then, that there is such a thing as eye- 
strain, whatever its exact limits and importance be, 
we may add the much less questionable assertion that 
the eyes themselves may suffer if they are misused, and 
that the survival-value of the eyes, and especially in 
their use at short distances, is so great in the present 
stage of civilisation as to demand even more attention 
than many other organs about which we are more par- 
ticular. Teeth can be replaced, but there is no replac- 
ing eyes; whilst, on the other hand, their preservation 
is, as a rule, a matter of no difficulty whatever. 

The eye was made for distant vision, for broad 
views: it is naturally focussed upon infinity. The nor- 
mal eye in a state of complete muscular rest is accu- 
rately fitted to focus parallel rays — such as proceed 
from a star. Here is evidently a physiological theme 
for the poet. Nevertheless, civilisation might almost 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 



327 



be defined as involving a steady abbreviation of the 
range of vision. The use of the eye for reading and 
writing has become dominant, and the normal eye, as 
we have said, requires muscular effort to accommodate 
itself for such short distances. Still more effort is 
required for the long-sighted eye. This last effort 
involves an eye-strain which is indisputable — the cause 
of many wretched children's headaches. The long- 
sighted reader is not to be congratulated, and had bet- 
ter begin the wearing of glasses at once, little though 
they may enhance the face. 

Short-sightedness, however, is much more common, 
and is undoubtedly becoming still more so. There 
can be little doubt that in past ages short- Modern 
sightedness was a most serious disadvan- myopia 
tage in the struggle for life, and the sh6rt-sighted 
people on the whole tended towards elimination. We 
are changing all that. As we shall see, it is now good 
to be short-sighted, at least in some degree, and cer- 
tainly any elimination of the short-sighted by a process 
of natural selection has now completely lapsed. But 
whilst heredity therefore counts in some measure for 
the increase in short-sightedness, environment or educa- 
tion also acts in the same direction. The use of the 
eyes at short distances involves an internal muscular 
strain which gradually alters the shape of the eye-ball 
itself, so that it becomes a short-sighted eye, and thus 
requires less muscular strain, if any, for accommodation 
to vision at short distances. This is palpably an 
adaptive change to the circumstances of life, and in 
our discussion of this question it is time that we looked 
at the thing from the high biological standpoint. In 
any case, human beings would be nowhere without the 
capacity for adaptation, which they possess in a 
millionfold more abundance than any^ other living 
creature, and the inexhaustibleness of which, dependent 
upon the educability of the brain, explains man's dom- 



328 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

inance of the earth. The fact that the normal eye, 
which required effort for use at short distances, can in 
the course of a few years be transformed into an abnor- 
mal eye, with which reading and writing for hours 
together becomes easy and free from fatigue, should 
not be occasion for a diatribe against civilisation or 
against eyes in general, but rather for a chorus of 
admiration at this latest instance of human adapta- 
bility. Some day, when biological principles are com- 
mon property, it will not be necessary to make these 
protests. 

I say advisedly, then, that the astonishingly alarm- 
ing figures quoted by doctors, whilst freely to be 
accepted, may require re-interpretation. When we are 
told that in one school in Philadelphia two-thirds of 
the children had defective vision, or that of six hundred 
thousand London school children ten per cent, were 
found to have less than one-third of normal vision, 
we require to ask ourselves what is the exact meaning 
of normal and of defective in such statements. On 
leaving school at eighteen the present writer played 
cricket without glasses. He then devoted himself for 
six years to reading, never using his eve^ for distant 
vision except by accident. For ten years after leaving 
school his eyes became steadily more and more short- 
sighted, but apparently have now reached their limit 
in this direction. He has to wear glasses for cricket. 
On the ordinary medical standard, then, his eyes, nor- 
mal at eighteen, are grossly defective at thirty. On 
the other hand, they never fail him ; he can and does 
use them at reading distance during at least four- 
fifths of his waking hours every day in the year, and 
lias never yet had a headache or ceased working or 
reading on account of his eyes. This is a mere typical 
instance which many a reader who has observed himself 
can parallel. The eyes have become adapted to their 
function. When, therefore, we read that "in Ger- 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 329 

lany Cohn finds that twenty-two per cent, of the lower 
lasses are short-sighted or myopic, while fifty-eight 
>er cent, of the upper classes are similarly afflicted," 
•erhaps we should only be grateful for this "affliction" 
-nich permits a man to do his appointed work in ease 
nd comfort, whilst his neighbour who boasts of his 
strong eyes" cannot read for an hour without the 
eginnings of a headache. It may be suggested, then, 
hat students of this matter should devote themselves 
o determining the answers to a few elementary ques- 
ions, as, for instance — What shape of eye-ball is best 
tted for a civilised life ? How is that shape of eye-ball 
o be best attained? At what age may it be aimed at? 
Vhat shape or shapes of eye-ball are legitimately to 
>e called normal? Is the vision defective which can 
>e used at a few inches for hours on end, but is uncer- 
ain about the identity of people across the street, or 
5 the vision defective which requires no aid at the 
heatre or in the playing-field, but brings on a head- 
.che with half-an-hour's reading? Is it an affliction 
o adapt your eyes by natural means to the work of 
r our lives? If short-sightedness, whether inherent or 
.cquired, be the best kind of vision for modern man, 
•light we not to redistribute our adjectives in talking 
»f these ocular conditions? 

The hygienist is, of course, bound on every ground 
o approve the principle of daylight saving. Some- 
;hing has already been said about the value The best 
)f light on general grounds. As regards light for 
;he care of the eyes, the simple principle vlsl °n 
>n which we should act is that substitutes for daylight 
hould reproduce its conditions as closely as possible, 
rhere is every a priori reason for expecting that the 
>est light for purposes of vision, as also for the main- 
;enance of health in other ways, must be the sunlight, 
;o which man has been undergoing adaptation for so 
nany ages. We shall learn in course of time, as we 



330 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

have not yet learnt, how to produce artificial light ol 
which the constitution is practically identical with thai 
of sunlight. The present forms of artificial light ma} 
and do often contain ingredients unsuited to the eyes 
ingredients perhaps visible, perhaps invisible. Hen 
may be a very real cause of eye-strain, involving grav< 
nervous fatigue, if not, indeed, structural injury, bu" 
it is a form of eye-strain which the oculist with hi: 
lenses can do nothing for. If we remember how per 
fectly the eyes can be focussed, but how absolute!] 
without protection they are from any abnormal forn 
of illumination, we may suspect that perhaps the ques 
tion of lenses is often subsidiary in the matter of rea 
eye-strain to the question of the quality of the ligh, 
which the lenses are required to focus. 

A notable feature of the diffused daylight, which i 
best for vision, is that it is steady. Considered on thi 
score alone, electric light is an advance upon gas, a 
gas was a very great advance upon candles. Th 
second great feature of daylight is the breadth of th 
surface from which the illumination comes ; in othe 
words, its diffuseness. This condition we must repro 
duce ; the source of artificial lighting should be uniden 
tifiable. We speak of a "soft light," and by that w 
mean one which does not hurt or fatigue the eyes. Th 
typical soft light is diffused daylight. Other thing 
being equal, there can be no doubt of the correctnes 
of Lord Rayleigh's suggestion, that the soft light i 
that which comes from a large surface of illumination 
In sa}'ing other things being equal, it is meant, o > 
course, to remind us that the light of sodium vapoui. 
and the light of mercury vapour, and the light of a. 
arc lamp, differ greatly in their own constitution, an 
that these differences are doubtless of great physiologij 
cal importance, little though they have been invest 
gated hitherto. But, given any kind of light, it will 
softest when it reaches our eyes from a large surfa' 



: 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 331 

i 

This is a principle which we all more or less recognise 
'and apply, but which must be much more applied. Its 
•value was conspicuously brought to my notice several 
Wears ago in a schoolboy visit to Messrs. Rowntree's 
Cocoa Works, where one saw a room containing six 
hundred girls, who were packing chocolates by the light 
!pf arc lamps thrown downwards from a white ceiling, 
J the lamps themselves being entirely hidden. Something 
jmight be added about the ventilation of that room, and 
its many other admirable features. But it is quite 
( bertain that many wealthy people, through ignorance, 
Expose their eyes to much injury to which the eyes of 
(those work girls were not subjected. 
j Our artificial light, then, must be steady and must 
.be diffused; in other words, we should see by steady 
light reflected from a large surface. Further — though 
this is at present largely beyond our control — the 
quality of the light should be as near as possible to 
hat of sunlight. Recent French observers have taught 
s that a light of given intensity has a very various 
ction upon the pupil according to its quality. For 
instance, a naked arc light causes such contraction of 
fjthe pupil that we employ only a small fraction of the 
light offered. Light of a similar intensity, due to an 
incandescent lamp, is utilised to double the extent — the 
Wpil contracting so much less. Thus the use of arc 
'famps in rooms — unless they be most carefully shaded — 
[ h not only a deplorable vulgarity, but is also waste- 
ful and injurious to the eyes. Nothing fatigues the 
lye so much as the arc lamp, as has been proved by 
Wting the duration of after-images produced by vari- 
ous kinds of light of equal intensity. 
j In the mere matter of intensity, which is most prob- 
lably of small importance compared with the quality 
iof artificial light, as these new experiments show, we 
lhave, of course, to find a mean between opposed ex- 
tremes. It is very probable that children's eyes are 



332 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

injured by defective lighting of schoolrooms. As far 
as we adults are concerned, mostly favoured as we are 
with electric light — all light, by the way, is electric, 
but that is another story — our error is much more 
likely to be in the direction of over-illumination. There 
is exceedingly little sense in reading or writing by a 
light so intense that the contractor muscle of the pupil 
must be in a state of high and unresting activity in 
order to cut off the excess of illumination as far as 
possible. It would be cheaper and less fatiguing to 
use a less intense light, and save purse and pupil 
alike. 

For the rest, something has already been said as tc 
the treatment of walls, and we may merely reminO 
ourselves that the patterned wall is a mistake, at anj 
rate so far as the eye with the hast hypersensitivenefl 
is concerned; and that, on general principles as wel 
as judging by experience, we shall do well to reproduce 
the green of nature, especially the green of fresh young 
leaves, in our living rooms. Dead white we shall ust 
with caution, and remember in general that all i> not 
good for the eyes that glitters. We shall persisknth 
avoid the introduction into our own rooms of the light- 
ing schemes seen in fashionable restaurants, or of nakec 
lights of any kind. We shall read, of course, with t 
light behind us, passing over either shoulder so long sa 
we read, and of course over the left shoulder wl 
write. He who has to use his eyes very extensively mil 
do well to give them intervals of rest in the course or 
hard work. Rest may be gained by closing the eye.- 
or by having some featureless space to rest them upon 
or by the use of landscapes in a room inducing us tc 
relax the effort of accommodation which, especially foi 
the far-sighted eye, involves so much strain. The far- 
sighted person will not read without glasses. 

A word must be added in self-defence, lest the readei 
should suppose that one approves of the educationa 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 333 

ractices which help to produce so many short-sighted 
lildren. It is not good that the child's eyes should 

2 adapted for sedentary work. The proper work of 
child is its play — open-air play, play with balls and 

le like. The time will come quite soon enough when 
le eye has to be used at shorter range, and the length 
f its axis will be modified by that use. 
If, however, we are to set children to read, or are to 

3 much reading ourselves, let us attend to the details 
f lighting; let us hope for the day when books will 
2 printed in white letters upon a black ground, thus 
(fording the eye rest everywhere, except where there 

something it wishes to see ; and, whilst admiring our 
rtistic friends who desire to introduce all sorts of 
rchaic type, let us prefer books printed in type of 
mple form, sufficiently large, and congratulate our- 
:lves that for most of the time, at any rate, we are not 
>mpelled to con the kind of type which must go far 
) produce the quite superfluous short-sightedness of 
it German neighbours. 

There is a casual remark made by Helmholtz, wholly 
iworthy of so great a man, to the effect that the 
ye is a bad piece of work. On the other ig norance 
and, Darwin has a passage in a letter and the 
)mewhere to the effect that the problem of e y e 
iplaining the evolution of the eye never presented 
self to his mind's eye without making him feel rather 
meamish. If we consider for what the eye was made, 
id for what it is now extensively used ; if we consider 
ie conditions under which it is employed, continuous 
se at short distances, though its structure suggests 
'sign for use at short distances only momentarily; 

we consider its endurance of microscopy and tele- 
:opy, and of all sorts of artificial light, and yet how 
irely it succumbs to anything that can fairly be 
ttributed to its use, I think we shall agree that the 
jre is a marvellous piece of vital mechanism. Nothing 



334 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

has here been said about the details of its structured 
but the reader who will follow the general principle! J 
of its use, as here laid down, and who will not hesitate 
to wear glasses prescribed by a thoroughly exper 
medical man, will have little reason to think of his eye! 
so long as he lives. When symptoms arise, whether 
they be painful or merely novel — such as the tardy 
accommodation to comparative darkness, which one mai, 
notice at about forty-five — let him promptly consult 
trustworthy expert, an oculist, and not an optician- 
The optician is a very skilful and useful person: h<, 
may often be cleverer in estimating refractive error:, 
than the average practitioner, but he certainly canno, 
be so accurate as the oculist who checks hi- results by 
various methods. Apart from this, the optician, 
ing only one method of relief, which is the u-e of lenses 
is very apt to find the need of lenses as the cause o 
all symptoms which come under his notice. He nutf 
be right in ninety per cent, of cases, but in the othe: 
ten per cent, his ignorance may be disastrous, and maj 
certainly lead to total and irremediable blindness. Ii 
almost any one there is the possibility of internal ocula 
accidents, as they may be called, hading to a conditioi 
of local nervous paralysis, which, after a certain 
not even the eye surgeon, much less the optician, cai 
cure. Amongst the great army of the blind there ari 
many who are there to be numbered simply because the;' 
ignored the early and premonitory symptoms of glaU 
coma, or consulted an incompetent practitioner or ai 
optician. The eye is a delicate piece of mechanism 
and the apparently innocent drug which the practi 
tioner may employ in order to dilate the pupil fo" 
purposes of examination may, in so doing, be surrieien- 
to precipitate irremediable disaster by raising th 
intra-ocular pressure. The present writer knows jus 
enough about this subject to know that only the prac 
tising ophthalmologist knows the rudiments of it 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 335 

when it comes to dropping atropine into eyes, even 
hore than when it comes to prescribing what shape of 
,enses should be worn in front of them, the expert is 
the person to consult, and if a man has to be sacrificed 
to make the expert, that is the case in many other 
•.allings also. At his best the ophthalmic surgeon is 
1 master of his work, and one may do very much worse 
Uhan pay him a visit once a year, symptoms or no 
symptoms. 

The commonest cause of blindness is gonorrheal 
nfection acquired by a baby as it opens its eyes to the 
light for the first time. This unspeak- . 
'able abomination occurs every day in every 
Hvilised country on the earth, and certainly no apology 
Will be offered for the remark that the reader, whilst 
Considering the care of his own eyes, has it incumbent 
upon him to know what the infection of gonorrhoea 
r jnay mean for a man's child. Some day, perhaps, 
public and professional opinion will have reached the 
ipoint of knowledge and of courage necessary to pro- 
feet infants from this horrible disease. Meanwhile the 
Vriter betrays his trust who ceases, in season and out 
'jof season, to declare that this consequence of venereal 
disease is one of the foulest and most abominable scan- 
dals by which our age will be measured at some distant 
klay when man emerges from barbarism. Till then, the 
•jexistence of this form of blindness may be commended 
ko the inquiry of pious persons who may estimate its 
•compatibility with Almighty Goodness and Justice. 
^Should they have any difficulty therein, let them be 
'lappealed to in the name of childhood to come in and 
;help those who, public opinion and Mrs. Grundy not- 
withstanding, mean to see the beginning of the end of 
jhese abominations before their own eyes are closed 
for ever. 

In discussing sleep something has already been said 



336 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

regarding the needs of the ear. I repeat that only 
The needs under the most absolute necessity should 
of the ear bedroom windows be closed. If the cotton- 
wool plugs alluded to fail to keep out the n< 
cities, a very much more efficient and equally harmless 
implement consists of a plug made of cotton-wool 
saturated with wax, such that, when held in the fii 
it becomes soft enough to mould itself to the external 
canal of the ear. Tl remarkably effective. 

Those I happen to know are made by M< ssrs. II iwkslej 
of Oxford Strict, and \ ed by 

naval and military men to protect them from the vibra- 
tions of gunnery. Similar pads could be made any- 
vi here. 

There is too much noise in the day-time also, and 
the unfortunate thing is th.it ire for k 

it out is b device for keeping out fresh air, 
citizen should do what he can to diminish this nuis- 
ance. 

Only in very extreme i attri- 

buted to the effects of noise. It is rath< r the brain 
centres than t! in of which one thinks in dit- 

CUSSUlg this question: none tl .Jit of 

the recent assertions of alienists that morbid auditory 
phenomena are commoner now than t! to be. 

Probably the occurrence of auditory dreams should be 
regarded as a warning. We must remember that the 
hearing apparatus leads very directly to the hi; 
areas ot' the brain. The more important the function 
of a sense, the more dan. its abuse. It is not 

good to hear "voices," and expert advice should cer- 
tainly be taken whenever one sus] litory hal- 
lucinations. Interesting clinical observations cook 
doubtless be made on the members of various so. 
which study the supernatural, as they call it. 

I do not think it is fair to employ, amongst 
means of protection, the device of depriving childrei 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 33? 

of noisy toys, unless, indeed, the noise cannot be con- 
fined to the nursery. Not only do these toys give 
enjoyment to the children, but they serve in the very 
earliest years to exercise the discrimination, if not the 
acuity, of the sense of hearing, and are thus perhaps 
the first rung on the ladder which leads to the heights 
of music. 

Remembering that man is a mind, and that the 
organs of sense exist only for the brain, one is tempted 
to discuss the training of the ear. But here again 
the adult is largely made or marred. When we come to 
study children, something must be said as to the educa- 
tion of the ear, and its possibilities at an age when 
what fools understand by education is harmful and 
impertinent. Here, however, we must regretfully leave 
that subject over. 

When we come to consider such a subject as the 
therapeutic value of music, we are, of course, in the 
realm of the indefinite, where there is The use of 
abundance of room for misinterpretation, music 
fallacy, and quackery. But I count it perhaps the 
one really grave omission from a former volume on 
"Worry," that it contains no word as to the unques- 
tionably sanative effect of music on many morbid con- 
ditions of brain and mind. The reader's first protest 
may be based upon recollections of much torture suf- 
fered under street organs, pianists who confuse ath- 
letics with art, all living violinists except about ten, 
throaty tenors, and orchestral conductors who seem 
specifically deaf to the trombone. The victim of insom- 
nia requires no further details of this sort from me, yet 
it remains true that, rightly employed, music of the 
right kind has a healing and soothing power, as well 
as possibilities of exhilaration not lightly to be dis- 
counted. Music is preeminently the social art, as its 
history and the evolution of hearing suffice to show. 
An insane person is typically a-social, but only few 



338 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

and bad are those asylum cases where music does not 
provide a bond of sympathy and of common interest. 
Every large-minded asylum superintendent deliberately 
and of purpose uses music in abundance as a therapeutic 
means. Says Wordsworth of the Highland lass — 

"The music in my heart I bore 
Long after it was heard no more"; 

and poems like Browning's "Abt Yogler," and above all 
others, his "Saul," serve to illustrate for us what I 
mean. Experiments were made some years ago in the 
therapeutic use of music, not as in asylums — where the 
thing, though really therapeutic, is described as a mere 
recreation — but of ostensible purpose. This circum- 
stance or some other led to their abandonment. Yi ( 
in the last two decades medicine has made great strides 
towards the recognition of the real constitution of man, 
and we may reasonably expect that before long mu>ic 
will take the place in modern therapeutics — especially 
nervous and mental therapeutics — which was allotted to 
it without question in days long dead. We have all felt 
like Browning's "Saul," though perhaps not on that 
gigantic scale; we have all heard tunes under which, 
as Browning say-, ''our hearts expand and grow one 
in the sense of this world's life." I believe that almost 
every man is capable of benefiting as Saul did under 
the influences which David brought to bear upon him. 
As a music lover, holding strong opinions as to 
the distinction between the healthy and the morbid in 
art, which, from my point of view, remembering their 
respective influences upon mankind, I must regard as 
the most important of all aesthetic categories, I am 
tempted to indulge at length in a discussion of the 
kinds of music which one would recommend as hygienic, 
and those which one would ask certain patients to avoid. 
It is not at all a question of the intrinsic greatness 



THE CAKE OF THE SENSES 339 

of the work. The tune of "John Brown's Body" is 
of the most elementary kind. Yet, joined as it is to 
an assertion of the greatest of all truths — that soul 
outlives body in some real sense — that tune, I believe, 
is good for any one at almost any time. In general, 
the same may be said of those great composers whom, 
judged by their work and their lives, and especially 
by Ruskin's great criterion, the influence of their work 
upon themselves, we judge to have been fundamentally 
healthy ; abnormal, of course, because of their supreme 
greatness, but not morbid. I question whether the 
extremest and most poignant sorrow of Bach or Bee- 
thoven ever depressed any human being. It is a noble 
sorrow — the sorrow of noble men for noble objects ; and 
I would prefer its influence upon a depressed patient 
to that of the inebriated joy of one or two clever but 
diseased composers, whom there would be no difficulty 
in naming. On the other hand — and the same is true 
of poetry — there is the whining sorrow, mainly of gas- 
tric or intestinal origin, which other men present us 
with. Often one is inclined to say that what they call 
their art would be more accurately called their excreta. 
This may be unique, wonderful, and effective, and may 
undoubtedly be perfectly sincere. It is therefore art, 
and real art. The healthy amateur is welcome to 
approve it, but just because it is essentially morbid, 
and because there is no disease so infectious^ as disease 
of the emotions, this is not the kind of music to which 
I, for one, would send an adolescent daughter of a 
neurasthenic friend. 

To the reader who only identifies tunes by the cere- 
monial acts they induce— such as raising the hat— the 
foregoing will seem wholly out of place in a work on 
personal hygiene. But he is the exception, and it 
seems quite clear that the number of people almost 
yearly increases who listen to real music. As an incura- 
ble concert-goer, one has abundant opportunities of 



340 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

noting the psychological effect of music of various kinds 
upon one's friends, if not upon oneself, and I am per- 
fectly certain that there would be no difficulty in draw- 
ing up a pair of contrasted programmes, each con- 
taining great music, one of which should be styled 
hygienic, and the other quite definitely morbific or 
insanitary. The names of Bach and Beethoven would 
appear only on one of these. As for Wagner, he could 
be well represented in both, say by the "Meistersinger" 
in one, and by the prelude of the third act of "Tann- 
hauser" and the whole of "Tristan," except the sailor's 
song and King Mark's address, in the other. This by 
way of the merest outline illustration. 

As I said many years ago, I look forward to the 
time when, gross infectious disease and the results of 
excess in eating and drinking been abolished, 

the general practitioner will put "psychologist" on his 
door-plate as he now puts "surgeon." I can imagine 
such an one ordering a dose of Bach, or Beethoven, or 
Mozart, or Gluck, or Handel, or Brahms almost with- 
out writing further details on the prescription; but if 
he writes Tschaikowskj or Strauss or Wagner, I think 
he will have to distinguish between this work and that. 
I have seen a man the worse for the "Pathetic" 
phony, very much the worse for "Tristan," and cer- 
tainly none the better for even a pianoforte transcrip- 
tion of "Salome"; whereas any one might be the bet- 
ter for a dose of "Till Eulenspiegel." 

I am exceedingly sorry if all this strikes the reader 
as so much nonsense or irrelevance, but I have been 
wanting to say it for a long time, and if I were of his 
opinion would not have said it now. 

Something of the exquisite delicacy of the eye is 
known to every one. A considerable proportion of the 
ocular apparatus is visible, and it is palpably such that 
one would think twice before allowing any one without 
credentials to practise on it. Thus the public is not 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 341 

much plagued with the eye quack. But the aural ap- 
paratus is wholly invisible, except for the merely degen- 
erate sound-catcher which, in somewhat A 
long-eared fashion, we call the ear. If against"^ 
one could see, as through a glass, even quacks 
darkly, the apparatus of the middle and internal ear, 
there would perhaps be as little room for the ear quack 
as for the eye quack. Indeed, there has been no small 
temptation on this ground to follow the example of 
most writers on hygiene, who fill their pages with 
physiology and pathology and anatomy, and to give 
some description of the real ear, with its piano wires 
and drum heads, chain of conducting bonelets, hair 
cells, dampers, and so forth. Once get but the haziest 
notion of this amazing piece of apparatus (which, 
though historically no older than the fishes, is now 
much the most complex and delicate piece of mechanism 
in the whole body, the eye certainly not excepted), and 
no one but an absolute fool will allow himself to be 
treated by correspondence, by advertising institutes, 
and the like, for deafness or any other trouble con- 
nected with the ear. I believe it is because the intricacy 
of the thing is hidden that the existence of the ear 
quack is possible. If deafness and cerebral abscess, if 
meningitis and mastoid disease are curses, then the ear 
quack is a curse, for he is an abundant cause of all 
these evils. It is worth your while to consult a dentist 
who knows a canine from a molar tooth; it is worth 
your while to consult for your ears a skilled aurist. 
His skill you can judge of only by the nature of his 
qualifications and appointments, but at least you can 
exclude any one who treats your ear without examining 
it in so far as that can be done through the external 
canal, just as you would dismiss at once any one who 
proposed to deal with your eyes without using the 
opthalmoscope, or to prescribe for chronic hoarseness 
without using the laryngoscope. 



342 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

The larynx is of course not a sense organ, but I 
cannot refrain from adding a word or two here as to 
Care of the its care. Chiefly one desires to protest 
voice against the casual entrusting of the voice, 

whether for speaking or for singing, or of the larynx 
on account of hoarseness or pain, to any one but the 
expert. There must be some kind of reasonable prob- 
ability that the person to whom you entrust an organ 
so delicate as the larynx has some acquaintance with 
its nature and needs. The case of the throat is some- 
what different. Any practitioner can see the throat, 
nor is there the slightest difficulty in making applica- 
tions to it. Also, if you are cartful about the h 
of the mouth and teeth, there should scarcely be much 
trouble for the adult in this region — unless, of o 
he has neglected adenoids or large tonsils. But the 
larynx is normally invisible. It can only be seen by the 
use of the laryngoscope. It is a Bale and certain 
rule, then, that the man who proposes to treat your 
larynx without examining it by means of ■ 
wanned mirror passed into the back of the throat is 
undertaking a task for which he is incompetent. Of 
course there is no difficulty in using this mirror with- 
out gaining a view of anything more than the back 
of the tongue, and such things have happened. But at 
least if the mirror is not used, the larynx is certainly not 
seen, and if it is not seen it should not be ti\ 

As for the people to whom one entrr. voice 

for purposes of singing, or perhaps of speaking, they 
number as high a proportion of quacks, no doubt, as 
are to be found elsewhere. By their fruit ye shall 
know them. The method, whether called old Italian or 
other, which leaves the voice hoarse and tired for the 
rest of the day, must either be wrong or wrongly used. 
Also, I am inclined to think that the use of the voice 
in the middle of its compass is not merely safer, but 
probably quite as as U singing parpa 



THE CARE OF THE SENSES 343 

the repeated attack upon extremes. Half the secret 
of having a voice that lasts, and is pleasant and clear, 
and the use of which is unattended by fatigue, is, in 
speaking at least, to find the middle of your range 
and stay there — or, if anything, below it. This is 
sometimes rather a problem for members of large fami- 
lies, who have learnt to pitch their voices high in the 
effort to gain attention, and who find it difficult to 
get rid of this, which is the characteristic vice of the 
inexpert public speaker. 

The state of the throat affects the voice. If one of 
the most important of all the resonators, such as the 
back of the throat, is blanketed with adenoids or 
encroached upon by large tonsils, the production of 
good tone is out of the question. These disorders are, 
however, much more serious in other ways. In children 
they induce mouth-breathing, and reduce the total 
amount of breathing, thus interfering with develop- 
ment of both mind and body. Many a stupid child 
needs scarcely more than a sharp finger nail to make 
him bright. In the adult and in the child also, these 
disorders of the throat offer points of entry to microbes. 
It is extremely probable that infections even so grave 
as that of tuberculosis are often incurred by this route. 

As regards the other senses, nothing need be said. 
The sense of smell is trivial as compared with the im- 
portance of the nose as the respiratory route. One 
should be able to breathe freely and easily through 
either nostril, except at night, when the nostril next the 
pillow is commonly occluded by the congestion which 
that position induces in the mucous membrane lining it. 
As for the sense of taste, we rank it far too high, and 
its activity does many of us great injury. Touch is 
the mother of the senses, and its proper coordination 
with movement as practised in games is of great service 
to the developing brain. So far as the adult is con- 
cerned, nothing need be said about it. 



344 XXIII 

THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 

Biology teaches that what, in ordinary language, is 
called the body, is a relatively late product of evolu- 
The germ- tion, primarily called into being as the host 
cells or trustee of the germ-plasm or the germ- 

cells — which are the race to be. We now recognise a 
sharp distinction between the body, or the soma, as it 
is called, with its various somatic tissues and organs, 
on the one hand, and the germinal or racial cells on 
the other hand. These last are in the body, but not 
of it. They have in them the life of this world to come, 
and if the word holy is to be applied to anything on 
earth, it must certainly be applied to them. They do 
not exist for the individual, but the individual pri- 
marily exists for them. They are thus in principle 
and in practice to be distinguished as regards their 
needs from bis need-. If tl : BCribed by the 

customary adjective, there is nothing more 
than that tiny involve Borne possible relation bi 
the individual and another Individual of the opposite 
sex; but if, as I sugg it, I, 1 the 

true reference is made to that for which they really 
exist. One has no d< sire to pn ich, but it may - 
be maintained that, until the ideal of parenthood and 
of the absolute .supremacy of the racial function, nior- 
allv considered, is i 1: until such thing 

1 It" \vc are to avoid any portion of the price of prui! 
present exacted from manhood, womanhood, youth, i 
and the unborn in every civilised land, we shall d 
where possible, to use words which do not orTen-i 
study of the psychology of shame would h . n with 

that that which may he done may 
mentioned, and that of i- 

correct, one may he thought offensive and the other 
jectionable. The adjective ..rived from the 

is correctly formed, and means no more 
rm implies" Sex. to which it refers 
source of all the higher developments of animal life, of 
human art, intellectual and moral passion. >. 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 345 

patriotism, and the sense of national duty as well as 
of personal responsibility and aspiration, are brought 
openly, deliberately, and without apology, to bear upon 
the racial instinct and its consequences, we shall see 
little substantial improvement in the human lot, little 
of the progress which withstands a moment's criticism. 
The relation of these instincts and functions to the 
individual who exercises them, to his health of body 
and peace of mind, to the length and worth of his life, 
is intimate in the extreme; and, therefore, from the 
point of view of the individual, they cannot be ignored 
— not even if parenthood be to him in all its aspects 
insignificant and irrelevant. Let us then consider the 
natural development of the racial instinct, which, 
indeed, may be regarded as beginning that time of life 
to which this volume especially refers. If, for con- 
venience, as we well might, we were to confine the term 
"child" to the first septennium (by the end of which 
the brain is at last almost completely formed), and for 
the next septennium were to speak of boy and girl, 
then the word "youth" might be applied at the dawn 
of puberty. Now and for the greater part of the years 
to come the human being has within him or her the 
racial instinct. During the first years of adolescence 
it is coming to its own, and thereafter it is established. 
Puberty, then, furnishes a legitimate and logical start- 
ing-point for the concerns of the present volume. 

in English-speaking countries the adjective is practically 
taboo, though the phenomena of sex can also be observed 
in those countries. One may propose, then, that instead ot 
speaking of the sexual instinct, sexual functions, and so 
forth, we should, for purposes of expediency^ use another 
word to which no one will object— the word racial. 

This has a further advantage. If we speak of the racial 
instinct, the racial functions, the racial organs we shall not 
only be clearly understood, but we shall incidentally make 
the right claim for these things— shall put them upon the 
lofty plane which nature demands, and shall always De 
pointing the mind towards the purpose which consecrates 
them, and for which alone they exist. 



346 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

There arise In both sexes, at this time, feelings and 
phenomena which are novel and unmistakable. Of the 
Thepheno- S* 1 ^ we sna ^ n °t speak here. That ques- 
mena of tion is reserved for a subsequent volume, 

puberty anc | perfunctory treatment of it would be 

impertinent in both senses of the word. The boy now 
becomes for the first time, though not for the last, in 
less or greater measure, a victim of the accursed and 
damnable prudery which everywhere blasts human life. 
I lis father had to find out things for himself — perhaps 
he forgetfl how he found them out — and so most his 
son. The mother does not understand, and would not 
know how to In gin if she did. The \m\ is legitimate!! 
and inevitably curious. "What dots it mean:" No one 
has told him that, before Long, he will have novel expera 
-experiences which mean nothing less splendid 

than that he I I :ne day 1 

i\u\y and privilege of fatherhood. No oi 

d to him that, so far from being alarming, mor- 
bid, or shameworthy. tluy will indicate that I 
ning to become h't in healtl . 

for the incomparable task of handing on the lamp of 
human life to the future. of all th< 

the medical profession! ami the churcl 

masters and parents, choose not to tell him that these 
nocturnal disturbances, whilst new to his experie 

normal, ami the welcome proofs that he is normal. 
There is no Bensible friend to that they 

kind of practice, a kind of useful preparation, 
ingless in themselves, but yet not without j ;: 
the cricketer's batting practice at the nets. H 
he to know thai his case ifl that of all healthy youths— J 
that these phenomena spring spontaneously from-j 
inner developmental processes, and should be 1 
take their own courses; that they need no atten- 
tion, no consideration, no scrutiny, no help, no r 
sion ? 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 347 



We agree, then, that he shall not be taught the 
I truth, the saving and splendid truth, regarding that 
racial function which too many churches The • 
in their imbecile and degraded folly have er's oppor-" 
! , decried, and which they have left for every tuni ty 
poisoner to defile. But it does not follow that if the 
boy is not taught by us he learns nothing. His seniors 
'! lie in wait for him with plenty of half-truths, which 
; are also half-lies. He is taught exhaustively what these 
things mean proximately, but he is not taught that 
they are means to an end — rather that the means is 
the end; and the supreme end, the life that is to be, 
which endows the whole with grandeur and purpose, is 
| ignored altogether. One writes in a somewhat ironical 
tone, but the truth is that nothing short of blazing 
indignation would be adequate to express that which 
every thinking person must feel directly his attention 
is devoted to the present state of affairs and its un- 
speakable consequences. Let us, then, consider the 
I question more generally. 

It is doubtless true that the power of the racial 
j instinct grows by use — up to a certain point. It does 
i not follow, however, that this is desirable The care of 
! either for the individual or for the race, the racial 
With or without use, it is in any case Unction 
powerful enough and to spare. It is a legitimate ques- 
tion for the evolutionist why this thing should exist 
in men in measure so vastly in excess of the need. 
One may venture to speculate that we inherit it from 
exceedingly remote ages, when the fate of the young 
human race was, so to say, trembling in the balance. 
Enemies were many and strong; weapons of both 
offence and defence were absent, as they are absent from 
no other animal or vegetable species ; it was imperative 
that maternity should be exercised by every woman, 
and thus the racial instinct — not only in man, but in 
both sexes — must be strong enough and continuous 



348 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

enough to be certainly counted upon. The case is 
vastly different now. It may be most confidently and 
dogmatically asserted that the additional activity of 
this instinct, obtained by its exercise, is superfluous, 
and will ere long become a burden to its possessor, if 
not injurious to others. 

But iVLvy aptitude develops by use. We cannot 
think well unless we think often. The muscles which 
are never employed will atrophy. May not incapacity 
for parenthood (to put the matter on the right plane) 
follow upon .a complete absence of any exen 
the racial instincts? There is an abundance of those 
who will declare that this is so. Perhaps the excellent 
and classical word "liar" is the best to apply to them, 
c pecially as it the moral judgment which ?ery 

nearly all, if not all, of these have earned. But 
ever their motive, whether disinterested and scientific, 
whether it be the same as the motive whicl 
older boy to encourage the yx ground 

that k, it is manly, M and whether or not this l 
that the oliler boy has a dM: 

younger one develop into a worthy manhood — it may 
positively be asserted that the thing is not so. Argu- 
ments from the case of unexercised muscles, for m stance, 
are ignorant and ridiculous. They involve a failure 
to recognise the radical distinction between the nature 
and mechanism of instinct, on the one hand, and 
acquired aptitudes, on the other hand. It is the mark 
of an instinct that it does not need practice for its 
successful exercise. The veriest tyro in psychoi 
familiar with this fact. That which is so certain 
a priori has been demonstrated a million times by expe- 
rience. Celibacy may be unnatural, and it certainly is 
not the ideal state of a man or a woman. The praise 
of it by the churches, involving as it does the dispraise 
of the highest things in life, redounds to their eternal 
disgrace. They must abandon it in this century, or 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 349 

this century will abandon them. But we are bound by 
the facts to say that continence prejudices not at all 
the existence or the potential effectiveness of the racial 
function, which may be successfully exercised after any 
number of years of abstinence. 

The elder boy who tells lies to a younger is a quack; 
the groom or potman who does so is a quack. Their 
motive is a morbid gratification of their own. But 
there are abundance of other quacks whose motive is 
mercenary, and who make an ample living out of their 
abominable trade. They are readily accessible, for 
every book-stall provides the ignorant with Regarding 
their addresses. The really fortunate the quacks 
youth who has been instructed by his father, doctor, 
teacher, pastor — all four between them commonly fail- 
ing completely — is immune : all the rest are susceptible, 
and many are attacked. There is no more black- 
guardly trade in existence, nor any for the permis- 
sion of which society is so wholly without excuse. Our 
business here is the individual, but if it should chance 
that the reader is a father, or in any way responsible 
for boys, it will scarcely be necessary to apologise for 
certain of the foregoing remarks, which indicate the 
lines upon which, as it seems to me, one might rightly 
plan the instruction of youth in its years of greatest 
need. But our more proper business at the present 
time is to consider the means by which the individual 
may himself be protected from the quack ; nor need we 
hesitate to include in this term the qualified quack — the 
doctor who condemns abstinence, and inclines to suggest 
that it will lead to immediate and remoter disaster. 
It passes my comprehension how any responsible per- 
son, least of all a doctor, acquainted with the facts^ of 
disease, to mention nothing else, can take upon him- 
self the appalling risk of giving advice which, quite 
apart from its falsity to the facts of nature and experi- 
ence, leads not once or twice, but in a great majority 



350 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of cases, to results so horrible, alike to the individual 
and to others, that the mind can scarcely tolerate dwell- 
ing upon them. 

It is false, then, we repeat, to assert that continence 
is injurious immediatel}-, or that it precludes the sub- 
sequent possibility of fatherhood. If it were true, it 
w r ould be an inexplicable anomaly. The body, which 
we call the individual, primarily exists for the care 
and protection of the germinal tissues. They do not 
exist for it. Thus the health of the body does not 
depend upon the exercise of the racial function, but 
the fit exercise of that function depends upon the 
health of the body. There i-, assuredly, a vital rela- 
tion between the body, or soma, and the germ-pla-m. 
The internal secretions, a> th f the racial 

organs undoubtedly affect the body for if 
we shall see. But the health of th 
not (Upend in any p upon whether 

or not their product! to anything. It <!■ 

upon their local freedom from disease, for which there 
is no assurai id upon the 

health of the blood which nouri m, which in 

its turn depends upon the observance of the g 
principles of hygiene. If o' ' . really 

or a woman, it i ^ 

organs be present, healthy and active. Rut compli- 
ance with these conditio I 
exercise of the racial functions at all. and ther 
greyer risk of their infraction than is incur 
the exercise of these functions in the common anc 
too commonly accredited fashion. 

One of the disgraceful and most successful method: 
practised by the quack is the use of suggestion for th 
The hypo- purpose of persuading the victim that hi 
chondriaof characteristic powers are in peril. No 
scx once in a thousand times, when 

is created, is there the slightest warrant for it. Bu 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 351 

we are all more or less suggestible, and no instance 
better than this can serve the modern psychologists, 
who are almost yearly realising with more complete- 
ness than ever before the widespread and incredible 
potency of suggestion in human life. 

There are few more lamentable things than hypo- 
chondria, the commonest and worst form of which 
focusses itself upon the racial functions. In a former 
volume I have done my best to offer some help to vic- 
tims of hypochondria and worry in all their forms. 
Here one need only say that suggestion is its root. 
Only very rarely indeed, I believe, is this pure auto- 
suggestion. Even where it appears to be so, the 
chances are that the real germ of the thing is some 
half-remembered word or advertisement or warning. 
The conditions to-day are such that no one who can 
read can go long without laying himself open to 
opportunities of suggestion on this score. They assail 
us at every turn in more or less open guise, and they 
are reinforced by the vile fiction, written too often 
by the most abandoned of women, which glorifies sexual 
passion, and so leads the reader to believe that its 
diminution, or the risk of its diminution, is the great- 
est evil that he can fear. 

One can only offer counter suggestion, or rather 
knowledge, which may protect the reader, as it should 
protect all who seek it in responsible quarters, from 
the snares of the suggester in all his or her forms.^ 

In their own interests men have invented various 
doctrines, which they have even persuaded many women 
to believe. The first of these is that a An accepted 
large amount of indulgence is necessary for lie 
,! man's health. As has been asserted, this is not true. 
There is in it no measure of truth at all, and consid- 
eration of the penalties which so frequently follow 
upon indulgence, especially in the matter of disease, 
shows that it is too often the exact reverse of the 



352 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

truth. No less important is the second doctrine 

invented by men, that in the absence of opporti; 

adequate in amount, they would become in 

and uncontrollable, Thus, the married woman may 

actually have been taught by her own mother to 

approve and acquiesce in t!.< 

evil" on the ground that it rap] fety valve, 

and that without it ihe and her like could not I 

1o be safe. What i . doctrine which 

is untrue in the fir I 

leads a woman to approve of an institution which too 
often means thai r children an I 

life by the foulest of dii tses? 1 y that 

a- loi._ . men will propagate 

thnn to their own adV 
ultimately to their hurt. It i> I 

shall in i ml <»I 

riageable or married dau action. 

Readers of T Meteh.nik" 

ture of Man," mav recall what the author 
regarding the racial instinct and its lack I 1 

adaptation to function at the pi All these 

P 
really, of course, Qlustratioi 

all laid dow n by S] 

progress will he achieved, S] 

after Long iges o\ evolution, the nature of man has 
achieved complete adaptation to t! 
There is no more conspicuous truth than t' 
ct of the racial instinct this adaptation 1 
been attained. If we consider tl ;:iake-up of 

human nature as it i<. minv oi the conditions under 
which we live, as social behlgS, are not natur 

difficulties oecessarOy arise. In 4 

strength of the racial instiin 
ate to the only purpof 

disproportion is not of our making, 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 353 

quences cannot be disposed of either by the present 
writer or any other. One or two principles, however, 
based upon the best results of modern psychology, 
may be laid down and commended to the reader's 
consideration. 

If there is an omission in Forel's masterly work, 
Die Sexuelle Frage, it is a discussion of the means 
whereby the great excess of sex energy may be dis- 
posed of. It is true that he protests against porno- 
graphy in every form, and it is certainly necessary to 
repeat without reserve his indictment of all means 
employed to aggravate and exacerbate that which is 
already excessive. On this point, of course, there is 
universal agreement, but there is an aspect of it which 
especially concerns the individual of education, such 
as one hopes to number amongst the readers of this 
book. The frankly and openly pornographic is the 
subject of attack by law and by other means. But 
this kind of stuff is, besides being pornographic, so 
crude and vulgar that it offends the educated palate. 
Thus there arises a subtler supply, no less noxious, 
which makes a successful appeal to many who would 
be simply disgusted by the other thing. Like the 
duchess in Mr. Pinero's play, they can persuade them- 
selves that they read the author "for the exquisite 
purity of his style"; "the subject matter escapes me." 
But this duchess, in her every act, betrays her forma- 
tion by the rubbish which she has read and has not 
escaped. The answer to this is that, even if the sub- 
ject matter does escape the intellect, there are certain 
areas of the nervous apparatus which are nevertheless 
affected. No sane person will ask any other explana- 
tion for the success of some of the shameless writers, 
morally and in effect worse than any hapless creature 
of the streets, who find certain publishers for their 
works to-day. One has long believed that it is a pity 
to teach all and sundry to read. If only there were, 



354 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

as there is not, some means of knowing which children 
would repay the trouble of teaching them, and which 
would convert the power into a personal disaster! At 
any rate, it must excite the laughter of devils to see 
this strange anomaly, man, not merely carrying the 
necessary animal about with him, as he must,, but tak- 
ing so much pains to keep it as much of an animal 
and make it a£ much of a nuisance as possible. 

And now for our point. It is that there is possible 
for civilised man a transmutation of the sex energy in 
The trans- a f asmon which has indeed already changed 
mutation of the face of the world. The glorification of 
sex sex, the deification of the beast, which is 

the secret of the success of many a novel, must give 
place to a real glorification of sex, dependent upon the 
psychological analysis of human nature as it is found 
in civilised man at his best. The evolutionary psychol- 
ogy — and the psychology which is not evolutionary is 
not psychology — teaches us that sex, of which some 
of us fear to speak, and which so many think a rather 
disgraceful thing, is the source, the single fountain- 
head, of all the higher activities of man. Already not 
a few men are capable of civilisation and domestica- 
tion under the influence of woman. Pie is most a man 
and least a brute in whom is possible, through woman's 
agency, the transmutation of nearly all the sex energy 
into the myriad activities of art, invention, and thought 
which are displayed by civilised men. The lessons 
which we learn from such a great observer as Pro- 
fessor Stanley Hall are daily being supplemented. 

More than once during the last twenty or thirty 
3 T ears, eager critics of the nonsense which is commonly 
Civilised talked about race have too hastily jumped 
and savage at the argument offered them by sa 
man childhood. Dr.Archdall Reid, for 'instance, 

points to the brightness and intelligence of the aborig- 
inal Australian child, which may often beat its Euro- 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 355 

pean classmate of the same age. That is true, but 
it is not the question. The point that matters is not 
the comparison of races before puberty, but after it. 
The question is, What does the emergence of the sex 
energy effect? The interested reader should acquaint 
himself with Mr. Dudley Kidd's unique and irresistible 
book, "Savage Childhood: A Study of Kafir Chil- 
dren." In that delightful volume, the photographs 
alone of winch are worth its price, nothing comes out 
more clearly and finally than the influence of puberty 
in savage man. We speak here of a natural process, 
not of any consequence of ridiculous practices such as 
civilised people call education. Up to puberty, then, 
the Kafir child, the Kafir boy and girl, are fascinating, 
intelligent, sympathetic, everything that the ideal child 
ought to be. They have ideas, delightful play; they 
are artists, of course, as every natural child is an 
artist; nothing could be more promising. Says Mr. 
Kidd: "As a matter of fact, the savage is at his best, 
intellectually, emotionally, and morally, at the dawn 
of puberty. When puberty is drawing to a close, a 
degenerative process seems to set in, and the previous 
efflorescence of the faculties leads to no adequate fruit- 
age in later life." If we regard the savage child as 
zero, then "the adult Kafir on this scale is often a 
minor quantity. ... In nothing is this more marked 
than in the case of the imagination. Not a few observ- 
ers have pointed out that the imagination in the Kafirs 
runs to seed after puberty; it would be truer to say 
that it runs to sex. Our main aim in the education 
of backward races should be to draw out, discipline, 
and strengthen the various faculties (and specially 
the imagination) of the children so that, when the 
age of puberty arrives, these faculties may be able to 
resist the degenerative and blighting tendencies that 
must soon arise. The politician in South Africa pays 
attention chiefly to the question of the franchise of 



356 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the native; the statesman is profoundly interested in 
the education of the children." 

The pornographers, then, are doing their best to 
insure that the sex energy of civilised man — nor need 
the term wholly exclude woman — shall "run to s 
rather, shall remain as crude, untransmuted sex. But 
it is in the higher cmplo}-ment of this most abundant 
reservoir that the p i the virtue of man 

at liis best. We arc beginning to realise that art and 
religion and sv nthooa; even moral 

indignation on behalf of or children, or 

abstract causes like justii . for doing 

a great piece of work, like the writing of a Bj 
of philosophy thai — thai all 

these derive, by an alchemy a thousand times better 
worth attaining than any for which the PhilosO] 
Stone was sought, from rhich at pul 

is first generated in the body, but of which only ■ 
minute proportion ry for the direct 

purpose What change of lead into gold can compare 
with this higher alcbei 

My ii that we should ui 

psychological truths in dealing with ours 

The higher with our children. Ol tivity, 

alchemy bmjb (in the somewhere, pron l the man. 
This restless activity I in the body by the 

racial organs. The feminine form of it is 1 

but is no less real, and baa ■ umilar ori 

here is just the co: that which assails us in 

the matter of money. This is ■ kind of money which, 

if not spent, doet burn a hole in the pocket. 

in whom the possession of an almost inexhaustible 

purse during the years of maturity is not i 

scarcely count as human being-, but rather as whai 

John Stuart Mill called locomoth The 

problem for the others — normal men — is how 

through their energy-income rightly, safely, and 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 357 

profitably Spend it they must, and quickly enough. 
Very near y the whole of it-the whole of it, indeed, 
for the celibate— must be transmuted before expendi- 
ture, or by expenditure on higher planes. The best 
advice lean offer, then, true though trite, and perhaps 
vague, is to get a purpose and an interest, and to 
pursue them. (Too much is commonly expected from 
muscular expenditure alone— as, for instance, amongst 
public-school boys.) As every one knows, this is the 
means of safety. There will follow upon it a diminu- 
tion in the call of the racial instinct as such. So much 
the better. Plenty of quacks will then be ready to 
assure us that we are losing our virility. The answer 
is that we are proving our virility by the transmuta- 
tion of what would otherwise be bestiality. 

We see, then — and to my mind modern psychology 
has nothing more valuable to teach us — that the dis- 
harmony is more apparent than real. To put it in 
another way, we see the lines on which may be attained 
that adaptation of human nature to the social state 
which Herbert Spencer recognised as the goal of prog- 
ress, and the ideal of every wise friend of the human 
cause. 

The kind of love which is alone worthy of the name 
and which makes lasting happiness in marriage is a 
product of the higher alchemy. It arises, beyond 
dispute, in sexual passion, even though it may never, 
even at first, have appeared in its untransmuted form. 
Perhaps from this point of view, man, after all, has 
not an excess of this passion — if he knows how to 
achieve its transmutation. 

We see here, the reader may be reminded, a further 
illustration — and there is no better — of the principles 
of what we called the new asceticism. The old method 
was to starve out the beast, if not to eject him alto- 
gether by sheer force. But he is a necessary animal. 
The better way is to transform him; the animal is 



358 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the source of the truly human, but it must be human- 
ised. 

To speak of the transmutation of sex energy may 
seem to savour of something too intangible to be called 
The principle scientific. Yet it u possible, in some 
of internal measure at least, to reduce this id 
secretion concrete and | In discu 

- and drugging we saw that I - which 

have an influence beneficial as well as potent upon the 

animal body arc themselves of B 

part of the body we call the brai 
plays the b lerived from such p 

secretion of the thyroid gland of the neck. Now we 
find that the reproductive gland - accommo- 

dating the germ-pl In chemical com- 

pounds, in some o I identification, 

which are to be aumbered among-' 
of all the internal ly. By an 

intern Ion we mean one which ined to 

into the blood— as contrasted, for instance, with 
such a secretion as that of tl. . which i- 

from the blood — not added to it. 

Now the relevance of the principle of inter 
tion will he granted in the case of tl luctive 

glands in the ease of the female; but It i\ first 

appear that th I the male was different. 5 I 

some proportion, at the ticular 

secretion la »ary for virility as the 01 

scent ion for femineity. Tl: 

are in reality strictly parallel. ■ 

pathologist, Virchow, has somewhere indulged in what 
is no less than a panegyric in honour of tlu 
not as the site of production of germ-cells, though that 
is distinction enough, but as the source of substances 
which, passing into the blood, make womanhood pos- 
sible. Exactly the same is true of th. 
organs in the male. Their secretion makes manhood 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 359 

possible. In their absence, or in the case of their early 
destruction by disease, manhood never appears; and 
there is no surer way in which to destroy existing 
manhood than in such a course of life as, in effect, 
deprives the body of the internal secretion of the testes. 
Manhood, then, is the product of the energy of the 
racial organs ; and the conception of the transmuta- 
tion of sex takes on a strictly rational and concrete 
aspect in the light of this fact. It is not merely 
that, as every competent and responsible authority 
asserts, 1 continence does no harm to the individual. 
It is that he positively and directly gains by the 
actual absorption of that secretion without which 
neither the achievement nor the maintenance of man- 
hood is possible. The cost of fatherhood is exceed- 
ingly small — so small as to be wholly negligible. 
Nature has so ordained. A man may achieve this 
privilege in reasonable, or indeed in unreasonable 
abundance, and yet retain for his own use all but a 
wholly insignificant proportion of the invaluable sub- 
stances which his racial organs, during the years^ of 
manhood, are always actively producing and pouring 
into his blood. The consequences of sexual excess are 
thus the most intelligible thing in the world. They 
depend not upon nervous excitement, but upon the 
definite loss to the blood of substances without which 
the vigour and energy of manhood, which have changed 
the face of the earth, are impossible. In the most 
literal and accurate possible senses of the words, the 
internal secretion of the testes has made human his- 
tory by its absorption into the blood of men. 

Nature, as we have hinted, has been most lavish in 
her provision of this necessity of manhood. No youth 
is to be alarmed at nocturnal phenomena on the 

1 See for instance, "Marriage and Disease" (Messrs. Reb- 
man), a translation, abbreviated for the genera] reader, from 
the authoritative German work on this subject. 



360 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

ground that they will cost him dear. The extent of 
the loss thus involved, if 1 it be determined wholly by 
internal causes, and in the absence of previous habits 
which have thrown the whole neuro-chemical mechanism 
out of order, is wholly negligible — as is the loss 
involved in fatherhood. 

Doubtless one is scarcely entitled to say that the 
foregoing accounts completely in physiological terms 
for what I have called the transmutation of sex. 
Psychology, individual and racial, must go further 
even than it is carried in Dr. MacDougall's recent 
work "Social Psychology," before we can wholly reduce 
to the language of science the conception on which I 
desire to insist ; but we know enough already to see 
that it is not without a precise and assured founda- 
tion. 

As every one knows, and as has been insisted upon 
by all the recent writers on the psychological relations 
Alcohol and °^ alcohol, this drug has a very definite 
the racial relation to the racial instincts. The action 
instinct j s explained if we remember Shakespeare's 

phrase, "steal away his brains." Paralysing the 
"brains," which in this phrase stand for the powers 
of inhibition or control, the drug leaves lower areas 
of the nervous system uncontrolled, and thus unduly 
free to express themselves. The pure moralist will 
commonly say that the drug "calls out the baser 
instincts." Such a phrase misses the true psycholog- 
ical analysis, and the use of the word "base" in con- 
nection with the instinct which alone conditions the 
continuance of the humai* race, and which is therefore 
sacred, is an instance of the deplorable injury which 
the moralist often inflicts upon morality. Put apart 
from these criticisms, we must wholly assent to the 
warning against alcohol for youth or adolescence. As 
Sir Victor Horsley says, "for the sake of national 
morality as well as physique, it is clear that in no 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 361 

form whatever should alcohol be used by the young, 
either in childhood or adolescence." This author cites 
from Dr. Clement Dukes, the distinguished physician 
to Rugby School, the following words, which cannot 
be too widely read: — 

"Beer is a drug which deadens the will-power and 
excites the animal instincts of the young; its relation 
therefore to immorality is most momentous. . . . 

"In plain English, a master who allows his pupils 
to drink beer at bedtime, and a parent who sanctions 
it, implicitly says to them — 

" 'I give you this beer at bedtime, well knowing that 
it will blunt your intellect, deaden your conscience, 
and dimmish your will-power; and that at the same 
time it will excite your animal instincts.' " 

As alcohol is the chief ally of the tubercle bacillus, 
so also it is the chief ally of the organism which causes 
syphilis, and the still humbler organism which 
causes gonorrhoea. Not only does the drug promote 
indulgence, not only does it lessen the care taken 
against infection, but it also directly lowers the bodily 
powers of resistance. 

It is impossible to omit some brief reference to the 
infectious diseases which are so commonly associated 
with the unwise exercise of the racial in- Theques- 
stinct. The denouncer of quacks would tionof 
be a proved quack himself if he attempted, dlsease 
by means of a book, to undertake the treatment of 
these maladies. But something useful can be said. 

In the first place, every one who offers to send 
books, telling you how to treat yourself, is a quack. 
It is your money he wants, and he will give you less 
than nothing for it. In the second place, all the 
unqualified practitioners, including chemists, who pro- 
fess to be able to deal with these things are, in so far 
as they do so, dangerous quacks. Nay, more, it is 
probably well within the truth to say that not one 



362 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

qualified medical practitioner in a hundred is really 
competent to treat these things. Untreated, or in- 
adequately treated, they are a source of disaster to 
the individual, and one of th< garded of thern, 

which liars describe as "no worse than a bad cold,'' 
often brings death to any one who is unfortunate 
enough to be his wife, not to mention congenital and 
incurable blindi On : ground, 

therefore, it is the duty of the | 

other, and no matter what I linary 

pains, to follow the only course which 
meets the case, an >r — he 

exists, though I I will treat these 

things ikflfuHy as 

they demand; and, haying done so, to tell him the 
truth, to follow h ifl 
no account whatever to those who 

promise to do in d. 

only be done in inoi inlj cannot 

be done by them in any | 

reader who follows this mj recommer. 

will be my debtor to tl. 

wife and cliildi' 

We must later take i d tlie 

importance of gonorrhoea in relation hood, 

. and especially to 

ofgonor- dnn. B Slthin the limits of the 

rhoeal infee- present volume are th-. 

tlon , as a prominent rilitj, 

upon the birth-rate. Bui it would be to beti 

opportunity, to 

rheea as conveyed to woman by n 

alone is concerned, tiny lie most abominablj 

declare thai this disease i- "no worse than ■ 

But the discovery oi' its causal organism, t! 

ens, by Prof.— v Itherto 

unsuspected maligns this malady in n 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 363 

to woman. It is certainly not too much to say that 
not a day passes but many wives, throughout civilisa- 
tion, receive this infection from their husbands. The 
abdominal surgeon and the gynaecologist are now 
able to estimate the consequences. More than half 
of all the cases in which it is necessary to open the 
female abdomen are now known to be due to the 
gonococcus : some authors state the figure as even 
ninety per cent. Wives are taught that their own 
happiness and safety depend upon the existence of 
prostitution ; but the price which innocent wives yearly 
pay, in the shape of gonorrhoea, for the existence of 
prostitution, is past all adequate reckoning. It would 
still be too horrible to contemplate, if no such disease 
as syphilis existed. We are beginning to learn, thanks 
to the microscope and an aniline dye or two, which 
enable us to identify the gonococcus anywhere with 
ease and certainty, that though syphilis is no less 
noxious than we had thought it, gonorrhoea, judged, 
not by the relatively slight toll it exacts from man, 
but by its results in both sexes, is actually worse. 

What our successors will think of the wicked hypoc- 
risy and criminal prudery of the age which know- 
ingly permits these abominations, and has the effront- 
ery to do so in the name of virtue and the sacred 
cause of marriage, can only be surmised. The Press 
has lately learnt that matters of hygiene can usefully 
and profitably be discussed in its columns; but no 
well-conducted journal— no, not even the yellowest of 
the yellow — would raise a finger for the cause of inno- 
cence betrayed, defiled, and done to death, so far as 
this subject is concerned. Writers on hygiene are 
commonly no less cautious ; nor have they the excuse 
of legislators and officials, that they are, in general, 
merely fools. The Eugenics Education Society, of 
London, single-handed, intends to flout almost all pre- 
cedent, and break this brutal and murderous silence. 



364 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

In America there has lately been founded the "Penn- 
sylvania Society for the Prevention of Social Disease," 
a circular of which, "issued in the interests and for the 
protection of American women and their children," is 
before me as I write. All honour to these pioneers. 
In the interests of men, women, and children alike in 
Great Britain and in America, I cannot do better than 
conclude this chapter by quoting from this admirable 
"circular of information*'' The Society demand-, as 
civilised society everywhere should, must, and some day 
certainly will demand: — 

"The observance of a like standard of morals for 
men and women, and the public recognition by society 
at large of nature's inexorable decree that p] 
and moral hygiene must be identical for the two 
if the health and vigour of the nation shall continue. 

"Full knowledge that certain diseases which are now 
recognised as factors in depopulating civilised nations, 
and are widespread in our own America, appear to be 
most certainly preventable by one means — the I 
tion of our women in the necessity of demanding of their 
husbands, sons, and friends, Irfea afl clean as their own, 
and therefore as free from the likelihood of trans- 
mitting disease. 

". . . At least fifty per cent, of the sterility (inability 
to produce children) among men and women is due to 
gonorrhoea or syphilis of the husband, usually trans- 
mitted from and by him to the wife. 

"That notwithstanding these statistics there is an 
almost incredible, periodic clamour, not for the isolation 
and hospital treatment of infected prostitutes, but for 
their licensing and regulation. 1 Every prostitute is at 

1 Which completely fails to achieve its end wherever it is 
tried. 



THE RACIAL FUNCTIONS 365 

some time, and in most instances permanently, a focus 
for the distribution of one or both infections. 

"That it is the consensus of opinion among physicians 
in America and throughout the world that illicit inter- 
course is neither necessary nor advantageous to the 
health or vigour of any male or female; on the contrary, 
that it renders the individual liable to dangers that im- 
mediately assail the integrity of the home and the 
health and welfare of the community at large," 



366 XXIV 

CONCERNING HEREDITY 

The proposed limits of this volume have long been 
exceeded, but in the light of the knowledge of to-day, 
it is necessary, even though our subject be pc- 
hygiene, to take some account at least of another 
question. 

The history and fate of every living creature is 
determined by two factors — heredity and environment. 
No environment will reform a brain which, owing to 
hereditary defect, has never been properly formed: 
scarcely any environment short of infection by gross 
• will utterly d l ock of the highest order. 

The study of personal hygiene is concerned only with 
the environmental factor, and it is the temptation of 
the hygienist to assume that this factor is all-impor- 
tant. Vet, if every statement and argument in the fore- 
going pages were true, and the whole truth, and were 
consistently acted upon, it would be mere folly for me 
to promise ideal results ii \ It i< jui 

the hereditary far 1 I that almost every 

hygienic rule seems to have its exceptions — that the 
toper, though rarely, may live to he a centenarian, and 
that, on the other hand, the observance of the hygienic 
regimen may seem to be futile. Those who look at 
medical problems from the biological standpoint are 
now beginning to appreciate the terms in which the 
hygienist must state his case At the most he can only 
k sav that, to the best of his belief, any given indi 
will find more profit in the observance of his rules than 
in the breaking of them, but what the absolute result 
of either the observance or non-observance, no one can 
Bay unless he is prepared to estimate fully and in de- 
tail the hereditary factor in every case. In what is to 
follow, then, I endeavour — for the first time, I b 
in such a book as this — to repair this grave omi 
from the customary discussion of hygiene. It may be 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 367 

argued that no profit can be gained, the reader's hered- 
ity being unalterable. Yet that is not wholly true. 

In the first place, we must remember that every 
hereditary predisposition requires the environmental 
factor for its development. Thus, if once we can teach 
ourselves to study our own heredity so as to be informed 
of our own morbid inherent tendencies, we may perhaps 
be able to guide our own lives for our protection. It 
is impossible to say that very much can yet be done in 
this matter, and it is quite certain that even foreknowl- 
edge will be of no avail in many cases. Yet I am quite 
assured that the time will come when, for instance, the 
man whose own ancestral history suggests a probable 
predisposition to the charm of narcotics will take 
special precautions on that ground. Not so much as 
this even can be hoped, however, until the tremendous 
importance of heredity is generally realised. The sub- 
ject is one very largely ignored and misunderstood by 
the medical profession; the general reader is not very 
apt to read books ostensibly dealing with it, and that 
is another reason why one should take the opportunity 
of insinuating it here. 

But, in the second place, a short discussion of hered- 
ity in some of its bearings is now demanded as a 
supplement to a book on Personal Hygiene, because 
the time is at hand when all civilised nations will take 
account of the principle of Racial Hygiene or, as the 
present writer termed it several years ago, Negative 
Eugenics. One of our aims in the present work is happi- 
ness, and for many readers a condition of happiness is 
happy parenthood. It is well, then, that we should 
know something of those biological laws which go far 
to determine whether parenthood shall bring happiness 
or horror. 

For these reasons we may consider in more general 
terms certain of the questions necessarily raised by any 
serious study of the racial or reproductive functions, 



368 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

their bearing upon the individual and the duty of the 
individual towards them. 

The germ-plasm, whether of future father or future 

mother, is already what it will be SO far ft* 
The germ- tccture is concerned. The individual, its 
plasm again creature and trustee, can modify it in no 
essential of structure. But its nutrition — its main- 
tenance — is at his or hei (fa for its 
food and oxygen upon him or her, just ftl does the 
unborn baby upon itfl mother. Thus we dial! ICC that, 
in the case of alcohol and ' I certain of the 

poisons of disease, (he Indrridual may poison the germ- 
plasm with which he u entrusted for the Future It 
is nourished by hu blood. I; i if he 

ceases to breathe, it will rulFoeation. T 

his power over it. thoUgO 1 one of H 

products, the creature of s moment, and though it is 

endowed uith potential immortality. In t! 

Lucretius, he ia like the rum bh him 

the lamp of life. Por nil brief ipan it is entrusted to 

him, and he must ps L What. 

is precisely the measure < 

He (or she, but this wfll fa tood) may die 

without passing the lamp OB at al '. 
him. Whatever the "immorl ality of t 1 

may or may not mean, it ia o rl more than 

what, in a phrase borrowed from ■ rery different con- 
troversy, may be call. «1 "conditional immortality.'" 
Now, though it was the duty of the runners to hand 
00 the lamp before they fell, there is BO moral law, 
human or natural, which imp ilar duty upon 

the individual human being. Though we are entrusted 

with this potentially immortal thing, for t! 

transmission of winch, indeed, the i\ of the 

individual at all was demanded, tl 

pulsion to become a parent : and merely to r- 

performing this function is to demonstrate the | 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 369 



of the mortal individual over the immortality of the 
germ-plasm, which is an immortality conditional upon 
the successive acts of mortal individuals. But are we 
not entitled to suggest that, for the future, the moral 
law will direct itself to this matter, no less surely than 
it directs itself to parenthood, so far as that concerns 
the already born? It is even now a duty for those who 
are high enough in the moral scale that, knowing them- 
selves trustees of a germ-plasm which will certainly, or 
almost certainly, give rise to diseased or defective 
individuals, they shall put an end to it in their own 
persons by forgoing parenthood. If, on the other 
hand, an individual knows that, as his own person and 
personality may demonstrate, the germ-plasm which he 
bears, and of which he is himself a product, is worthy 
of transmission, since it is such as would probably give 
rise to worthy individuals, then may it not be a derelic- 
tion of his duty to the future if he refrains from parent- 
hood ? 

For observe the nature of this trusteeship. ^ It dif- 
fers radically and radiantly from the material trus- 
teeship of society. In such cases you are a trustee 
for the dead, for the past— which is, in a very true 
sense, the non-existent. But all potentially fertile indi- 
viduals hold a trust for the future which, since it will 
live, is in a real sense alive, and, since it will be 
a reality, is a reality— whereas the past only was a 
reality. Many a trust nowadays simply means that 
the dead hand which, though it was once something, is 
now nothing, shall be a burden upon the present and 
the future— which are real. But this supreme trust, 
the germ-plasm, of which every potential parent is the 
trustee, is supreme, not only because it concerns the 
only real wealth, which is life, but also because it serves 
the only realities, which are the present and the future 
-unlike not a few monetary trusts which will not allow 
the dead to bury their dead. Every individual and 



a 



370 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

every society must choose between the worship of "un- 
born to-morrow and dead yesterday.'' 

Some such argument as this may appear paradoxi- 
cal. The past we know: have we not historians? Are 
there not events which can be called up before us with 
the utmost vividness — events which "really happened," 
as we say to a child? We speak of the historical 
imagination, but very little of this imagination is 
required. The smallest child who asks for a story has 
it in superabundance. But the future- — what is the 
future? It neither is, nor lias it really happened. Nor 
do we take seriously those who tell us stories about it — 
in which, forsooth, we may be wise enough. Yet we 
only need to consider in ord that the past, 

which is not and will n<>t be, i> no reality, and that the 
future — whether we have imagination or not — IS 
tain and living and nal. It is none other than the 

evolution of the present : and we arc this present. 

We regret that we cannot alter the past. Of c 

We cannot ; we cannot alter what IS not. We .should 

regret with shame that we have not vet reaHs4 

incalculable powers of shaping the future. And since 
individual man is mortal, future man, of whom the 
unthinkable myriads are at this hour latent in the 
living germ-plasm now borne by us who are now alive — 
future m (in is in our kee p ing, I nt gtim j 

is the human race to came, and it is absolutely at our 
mercy. What a trust ! What an antidote to the words 
of Macbeth — 

" Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more. It is I 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and 
Signifying nothing." 

It is granted, then, that though the germ-plasm 
is potentially immortal, though it is mankind I 
any individual may put a final term to it 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 371 

history, so far as the portion of it entrusted to him is 
concerned, by refraining from parenthood. This is a 
tremendous power of the individual over the Our power 
germ-plasm, which even the extremist Weis- over the ^ 
mannian must obviously grant. But are g er m-plasm 
we to admit that the individual has no other power ; 
that he can choose solely between the tremendous alter- 
natives of either passing the race on unimpaired or 
destroying it outright? This suggestion, supposed by 
some to be involved in Weismann's great theory, is 
palpably absurd, and has no reference to that theory 
properly conceived — as it is, for instance, by its author. 
Thus one may contract a disease which infects the 
germ, breeding horrors of every kind. Or one may suf- 
fer from lead-poisoning and similarly poison, tempora- 
rily or otherwise, the germ-plasm — with corresponding 
consequences. Or, if one takes alcohol in sufficient quan- 
tities, and under certain conditions, the same result will 
ensue. In such cases, those elements of the germ-cells 
which are destined to give rise to the nervous system, 
and especially the highest part of the brain of the 
future individual, are most seriously injured, in accord- 
ance with the general rule that the most highly evolved 
structure is the most delicate and susceptible. The 
parent who so treats his trust thus attacks, often to 
destruction, the highest attributes of man — the very 
characters which make him human. And the father 
who thus bestows a germ-cell which he has infected with 
syphilis leaves nothing undone to make his act the most 
utter and complete abomination that can be named. 
Not only is the future blasted and doomed, but the 
present — the living mother — is herself defiled as an 
individual and for motherhood, in the very act which 
confers the possibility of motherhood upon her. This 
foulest of all foul deeds is perpetrated daily throughout 
civilisation, and there is in Great Britain no law which 
takes any cognisance of it whatever. 



372 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

From our point of view, then, which is the highest 
that can be named or conceived, mankind at any moment 
consists of two sections. To one of these belong those 
who will not be parents. They may or may not have 
been parents in the past. To this group belong all 
elderly women, not a few married people, and many 
unmarried people. 1 

So far as the entire future is concerned — a future 
so prolonged, let us remember, that the whole past 
of mankind is but a- a moment compared with it — 
the personal morality of the non-par*, it i- of a wholly 
different order from that of the parent-to-be. He or 
she who is ne?er or never again to b .t has 

no duty to the germ-plasm in his or her ki 
Such a person, then, may or may not use alcohol in 
abundance — to take a typical and only too familiar 

CMC : It do< i not matter hoi 

since nothing is to come of it. But for those who 
will be parents, the trusteeship with which all healthy 
persons are potentially endowed is a real one. T y 
have that in their care from which future mankind will 
spring. It is theirs to nouri>h with ox I food, 

or to poison and d tter far that they should 

allow it to die with them, its purpose wholly unfulfilled, 
than that they should degrade the fulfilment of that 
purpose by feeding the portion of the germ-j 
which 18 entrusted to them with poisoned blood. Such 
an one must feel that, wherevi . he carries with 

him the future. The lives of those who are to be are 
in his hands. 

Nothing could well be more unfortunate than the 
erroneous recent idea that Galton and Weismann have 
released us from the burden of heredity; that the sins 

1 The reader may ask how we can predict r not 

some of these will become parents. That i 
relevant objection at the moment. The point is that, whether 
we can make pre,' 
mankind — the most important that a aed. 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 373 

of the fathers are not visited on the children; that we 
can do as we please, nor need regret past errors, since 
nothing that we can do is permitted by nature to injure 
the portion of the future race which is entrusted to us. 
This is a half-truth of the most pernicious order. It 
is true that, shall we say, a life of swindling and selfish- 
ness will not endow our children with a greater tendency 
to such things than they would otherwise have had, just 
as it is true that their brains will be none the worse — 
or better — if we have not been "educated." Such trans- 
missions do not occur and cannot occur; but for the 
physical health of the germ-plasm which is entrusted 
to us, for what one may call its upkeep, though not its 
architecture, we are certainly responsible. Perhaps the 
nearest parallel is that of a man to whom is entrusted 
the care during his lifetime of a wonderful machine 
which he does not understand, which he did not make, 
and the principles of the construction of which he can- 
not alter, nor yet rearrange its parts in any degree. 
But he can neglect it; he can forget to oil it; he can 
use bad oil ; he can let it rust and — if we conceive this 
machine as .one for the manufacture of men— when 
next it is set to work, the human product will be 
defective. 

Let not the reader fancy, then, that the theory of 
Galton and Weismann abolishes responsibility on the 
part of the future parent. Undoubtedly it reduces that 
responsibility, so far as its range is concerned; but 
indeed, if any one had actively held the Lamarckian 
v ie W _as the non-swimmer actively holds the view that 
if he falls into the sea he will be drowned— how could 
any one have dared to become a parent in the past.' 
On this theory every moment lost or wasted, every 
stray thought, every bodily injury— was a sin against 
the unborn. Those who take this greatest of questions 
seriously can fortunately repudiate a load of responsi- 
bility too heavy for any one to bear. The responsibility 



374 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

which is actually imposed upon them is relatively light 
so far as meeting it is concerned, though it 
incalculable importance. We cannot avoid the . 
bility of accident — say, a broken leg. This, on the 
popular view — if it i ble for ■ popular view to 

be an examined view — would condemn future children 
to broken bones: unless, indeed, it be supposed that 
the healing of the bone would save the future child. 
But plainly, we cannot live in ses — we wl 

to be parents. Nor need ire. V. 

to know, and to act on the knowledge, that th> : 
certain poisi . of them, like alcohol, produ 

minute forms of life outside the body, oth< re pn 

by minute forms of life inside th- ich a- the 

poisons of sv phi IN — which ai 

to the germ-plasm n hich is in our 

propose to use. The protection <>:' our I 

therefore of the undeveloped race which they harbour, 

from these poisons is quite practicable. 1 It is a dictate 

of true morality, and the day will assuredly come when 

it is placed in the very foreff 

those who bpsD be parent*. That is not to say that the 

others may i]o as they please in, for instance, the mat- 
ter of alcoholic indul l\ that their conduct 
infinitely less impoi - they in.! they 

are not to be parents, are of infinitely I rtance 

in all their comings and goingB. ThV 

the obvious protest that a Kant or a Sjuncer. 
Kelvin or a Galton, is of more importance than many 
parents; ami that is true — for th 

Besides the foregoing, there is also I with 

the name of Weismann the theory o{ "determinants."' 
k *ids," l< idants, M "biophors," and so forth, concerning 
which an infinity of criticism is possible. It seems to 

1 Except for the wife, who is at her husband's mercy in this 
respect, and is often infected, law and medicine and 
opinion doing nothing to save her. 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 375 

the present writer, however, that these two parts of 
Weismann's work are wholly distinct; the one con- 
cerns heredity and the other concerns de- Th .. . 
velopment. Criticisms upon the latter do significance 
not affect the validity of the former, and of the new 
the problem of development or embryology view 
is substantially irrelevant to our present inquiry. But 
Weismann's theory of heredity — that is to say, his 
theory of the nature of the organic relation between 
living generations — is indeed not a theory, but a state- 
ment of fact, and it is of enormous importance in its 
bearing upon the controversy as to the transmission 
of acquired characters. Now the importance of this 
controversy is incalculable. Says Herbert Spencer : "A 
right answer to the question whether acquired charac- 
ters are or are not inherited underlies right beliefs, not 
only in biology and psychology, but also in education, 
ethics, and politics;" and again — "Considering the 
width and depth of the effects which the acceptance or 
non-acceptance of one or other of these hypotheses must 
have on our views of life, the question, Which of them 
is true? demands beyond all other questions whatever 
the attention of scientific men. A grave responsibility 
rests on biologists in respect of the general question, 
since wrong answers lead, among other effects, to wrong 
beliefs about social affairs and to disastrous social 
actions." 

Spencer's own conclusion, very positively maintained, 
was that acquired characters are transmissible. Dar- 
win also held this view. Now, both Spencer and 
Darwin can be quoted again and again in the most 
positive expression of what we are now learning to call 
eugenic teaching. Spencer, for instance, speaks of 
"that general result most detrimental of all, helping 
the worthless to multiply at the expense of the worthy." 
He has several invaluable pages on the relations of 
war to eugenics, showing how in primitive societies 



376 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

militarism was eugenic in effect, whilst in civilised socie- 
ties it means the extirpation of physical fitness. Thus 
the modern Frenchman owes his short stature to Napo- 
leon, and thus "the wars of the Roman Empire rooted 
out the best, and left Rome to a mob" (Thomson). 
Thus again, Spencer says ("Study of Sociology," 20th 
edition, p. 369): "If men who, for a score of genera- 
tions, had by preference bred from their worst-tempered 
horses and their least-sagacious dogs, were then to won- 
der because their horses were vicious and their dogs 
stupid, we should think the absurdity of their policy 
paralleled only by the absurdity of their astonishment; 
but human beings instead of inferior animals being in 
question, no absunlr v ithcr in the policy or in 

the astonishment." 1 

The masterpiece from which these quotation- 
taken is indeed ■ eugenic treatise, like certain chapters 
of Darwin's "Descent of Man." And now we begin 
to understand why S as right in his estimate 

of the importance of the control irding the 

transmission of acquired < - both 

he and Darwin were with high and never-failing p 
for the human cause, both of them would assuredly 
have devoted their utmost powers to the formulation 
and propagation of . had their beliefs on this 

matter been other than they were.' But BO long as 
men believed that acquired characters were trans 
ble, education in the widest and best sense obviously 
offered the shortest road to the goal which we all desire. 
If the facts of heredity were what Darwin and Spencer 
supposed, education would retain the unchallenged place 

1 Tt is amusing and pathetic and int< i i >mpare the 

From which this is tai.cn with paragraphs l- 1 -! and u.^ 
of Ruskin's "Time and Tide." which should be read in this 
connection. Rnskin and Spencer thought very little c 
other, just as most of their respective followers do nov. 

-* " I he D< .cent of Man" was published in 1S71. and "The 
Study of Sociology." in 1S7.; 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 377 

which so many ages have given it, but it follows — and 
this point cannot be over-emphasized — from the modern 
discovery of the limitation of inheritance to the inherent 
or germinal that education must be displaced by selec- 
tion as the supreme instrument of race-progress. This 
we must assert and assert again, well knowing that not 
for many a long year to come will it be realised, much 
less acted upon. There, however, is the issue, as plainly 
stated as may be. The more this point is considered 
the more cogent and universal in its bearing it will 
appear. Forty years ago Herbert Spencer realised the 
significance of the controversy regarding acquired 
characters, and his statement of it is not the less valu- 
able to-day because, as it happens, Spencer's own con- 
clusion was the opposite of that which must now be 
recognised. Both Spencer and Darwin, notwithstand- 
ing their beliefs in the transmission of the results of 
education, formally and repeatedly enunciated the prin- 
ciple of eugenics. They could not, however, place it 
in the forefront, since, given their beliefs, it must be 
inferior to education — because so vastly slower. 

The business of the thinking party of the future, 
then, is evidently plain. Our first task is to teach the 
public at large that acquired characters are not trans- 
missible. During the six years of the present writer's 
public activity he has stated this, by voice or pen, on 
the average about once in a fortnight. So far he has 
failed to observe any sign whatever that the doctrine 
is not as novel and surprising to the public in general 
as it ever was. If anything may be inferred from this, 
we may conclude that our first task, though plain 
enough, is no light one. 

Many readers will know that quite lately there has 
been an astonishing development in the study of hered- 
ity—the re-discovery and revival of the work done by 
Mendel, Abbot of Briinn, more than forty years ago. 
It was at first supposed that this branch of inquiry 



378 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

was concerned only with the phenomena of hybridism 
in plants ; then, that the animal world at any rate 
The meaning stood outside the Mendelian laws ; then, 
of Mendelism that though they might apply to certain 
of the lower animals, they had no personal relevance 
for man. The opponents of the new study have had 
to abandon successively one and all of these positions, 
and I may here quote from Professor Bateson of Cam- 
bridge, the distinguished leader of the Mendelian school 
in Great Britain, a passage which cannot too deeply 
be taken to heart : — 

"There are others who look to the science of heredity 
with a loftier aspiration ; who ask, Can any of this 
be used to help those who come after to be better than 
we arc — healthier, wiser, or more worthy? The answer 
depends on the meaning of the question. On the one 
hand, it is certain that a competent breeder, endowed 
with full powers, by the aid even of our present knowl- 
edge, could in a few generations breed out several of 
the morbid diatheses. As we have got rid of rabies 
and pleuro-pneunionia, so we could exterminate the 
simpler vices. Voltaire's cry. 'Ecrater rmfameP might 
well replace Archbishop Parker's Table of Forbidden 
Degrees, which is all the instruction Parliament has 
so far provided. Similarly, a race may conceivably 
be bred true to some physical and intellectual characters 
considered good. The positive side of the problem is 
less hopeful, but the various species of mankind otf\r 
ample material. In this sense science already BUg 
the way. No one, however, proposes to take it : and 
so long as, in our actual laws of breeding, - 
stition remains the guide of nations, rising ever fresh 
ami unhurt from the assaults of knowledge, there i^ 
nothing to hope or to fear from these sciences. But 
if, as is usual, the philanthropist is seeking for some 
external application by which to ameliorate the cour 
of descent, knowledge of heredity cannot help him. 






CONCERNING HEREDITY 379 

The answer to his question is No, almost without quali- 
fication. We have no experience of any means by which 
transmission may be made to deviate from its course; 
nor from the moment of fertilisation can teaching, or 
hygiene, or exhortation pick out the particles of evil 
in that zygote, or put in one particle of good. From 
seeds in the same pod may come sweet peas climbing 
five feet high, while their own brothers lie prone upon 
the ground. The stick will not make the dwarf peas 
climb, though without it the tall can never rise. Edu- 
cation, sanitation, and the rest are but the giving or 
withholding of opportunity." 

Already Mendelism offers precise guidance in the case 
of certain diseases, such as prae-senile cataract; and 
in a study (unpublished) of the brooding instinct as 
an inheritable unit in the fowl, it has invaded the 
psychical sphere on its most important side. It gives 
precise orders, had we the wisdom to obey them, in many 
cases. The reader in whose family there is colour- 
blindness should acquaint himself with the facts of the 
inheritance of this abnormality. If he be young and 
his career yet undetermined he should make a point 
of ascertaining whether or not his vision is normal. 
The fact may bear directly upon the choice of his life- 
work. Then, again, there may be haemophilia or "the 
bleeding disease," as it is called, in the family. The 
daughter of a hemophilic man, herself showing no signs 
of the disease— for she merely carries it as an unwitting 
trustee for her sons— should know that motherhood will 
bring to her and hers more sorrow than joy. The 
hemophilic boy rarely lives to maturity, and no more 
need be said of him. But recent inquiry by the Men- 
delians both in Great Britain and in America seems to 
show quite definitely that, in accordance with their 
expectation, those males of a hemophilic stock who do 
not themselves show the taint will not transmit it. 
This is, of course, of the utmost importance for them 



380 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

in the matter of personal duty. They are free to 
marry, whilst their sisters are not. The facts are 
extremely curious and seem anomalous, but to the Men- 
deli an they are so far from being anomalous that they 
actually illustrate his law. 

Most of the hereditary abnormalities or diseases now 
being made comprehensible by the Mendelians develop, 
if they are to develop, without the environmental factor 
being of any moment. But we may at any time ascer- 
tain the laws of other diseases or diseased potentialities, 
the ill effects of which can be controlled, whether by 
habits of diet, by residence in certain climates, or what 
not. Thus, even before these words appear in print, 
it may be that a direct persona] service is done to 
some reader or another if his attention is effectively 
drawn to the Mendelian Btu 

Before we proceed in a final chapter to one or two 
terrible but inevitable aspects of this subject, just a 
Heredity and word must 1 ifl to the remoter as- 

the future pects of duty which our modern knowledge 
of heredity now begins to impose upon us. It has to 
be granted that, so far as the quality of the germ- 
plasm which each of us bean is concerned, there is an 
element of fatalism in the modern teaching. Whilst 
it is to be presumed that attention to the personal 
health, and thus to the quality of one's blood, will tend 
to keep one's germ-plasm in good repair, so to 
and whilst it is certain that the introduction of poisons, 
living or other, into the blood may injure the germ- 
plasm, yet in the main its constitution, and therefore 
its potentialities, are beyond the control of the 
and most conscientious. If, for instance, we are of slow 
intelligence and learn with difficulty, the utmost studi- 
ousness, though it may do much for ourselves, cannot 
be hoped to improve in any degree the quality of our 
germ-plasm on this score; and examples might be 
multiplied indefinitely. There is thus, as lias been said, 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 881 

a quasi-fatalistic element with which the hygienist, as 
well as the eugenist, to coin a word now necessary, must 
reckon. 

Nevertheless, our personal responsibility remains, 
and finds an abundant sphere in which to exercise itself. 
In the first place, it is for us to decide whether this 
germ-plasm, given whatever qualities it has, is or is 
not to be handed on at all. But though this is a tre- 
mendous power — who, indeed, could well ask for more? 
— it is not all. We cannot select our parents, but we 
can select our parents-in-law. It is for the individual, 
whether man or woman, to choose for his or her unborn 
children one of their parents. Let us, in the first place, 
consider the manner, absolutely unprecedented in the 
whole history of life, in which this choice is to be 
achieved. 

The psychology of man is profoundly modified from 
that of his predecessors. Certain of their characters, 
however, he retains in full abundance, foremost amongst 
these being the racial or sexual instinct. But consider 
what an instinct is. "Instinct," says Professor James, 
"is the faculty of acting in such a way as to produce 
certain ends without foresight of the ends." The reader 
will agree that this definition, framed by one of the 
foremost of living psychologists, and generally ac- 
cepted, is as a rule only too lamentably accurate in 
its description of the exercise of the racial instinct in 
man. Now the all but audacious proposal of the 
modern student of human heredity is that since we are 
human beings, "looking before and after," as Hamlet 
says, though also instinctive animals, we shall in the 
future and for the future, defying the nature of in- 
stinct, act with foresight of the supreme end which the 
racial instinct exists in order to serve. The reader 
must not hastily say that this is impossible, for there 
are not a few happy babies coming into the world 
nowadays who were desired and loved in anticipation 



382 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

long before they came into being; and if, as an evolu- 
tionist, one is puzzled for some absolute mark which 
shall distinguish man from all lower species, here surely, 
in literally provident child-bearing, is what we require 
to warrant the boast that man is the paragon of 
animals. 

We must, then, take and use this racial instinct, not- 
withstanding that it possesses in full measure the 
characteristic of instinct — a faculty for action towards 
certain ends without foresight of those ends — and we 
must place before ourselves the ideal of its absolute 
transmutation, an ideal which, as we have seen, though 
any observer of our planet until a few hundred thou- 
sands of years ago would have regarded it as utterly 
Utopian, and though many will regard it as u* 
even to-day, is yet actually realised by some amongst 
us ; and, as Herbert Spencer says, "That which the 
best human nature is capable of, is within the reach 
of human nature at large." 

In pursuance of this ideal we have first to recO{ 
the sharp limitation of our personal power over the 
germ-plasm which we ourselves possess ; but, secondly, 
we perceive that the choice of a mate, though we may 
be inclined to exercise it solely for our own pk 
is an act of immense responsibility to the future. We 
look upon the sexual instinct as somewhat animal, 
unworthy of the dignity of man. But if we transmute 
it, using it as the instrument of a self-conscious being 
for the realisation of the highest ends that can be con- 
ceived, then surely it may become, not our shame, but 
our glory. As intelligent beings we have, or should 
have, foresight, and it is the provident use of the racial 
instinct, the nature of instinct notwithstanding, that 
will some day transform the world. 

It does not need, alas, to be pointed out that in all 
educational systems hitherto we have persistently con- 
nived to ensure that on no account shall the racial 



CONCERNING HEREDITY 383 

instinct be made provident, and thus humanised. Our 
disastrous principle — and in no other direction does 
prudery exact a greater price — is in almost every in- 
stance to ignore the racial instinct altogether, leaving 
to time and chance and the devil the consequences which 
may ensue when, like a bolt from the blue, it strikes 
the boy or girl. In some rare instances we do recognise 
the racial instinct in its relation to the individual, and 
may utter warnings ; but nowhere, it is probably safe 
to say, do we take this instinct and associate it in 
educational practice with our knowledge of the end 
which it serves. 

The time must be nearly at hand, however, when, 
with the general discrediting, alike in its methods and 
its ideals, of that process of mental destruction now 
called education, eugenic education will be regarded 
as the crowning task of pedagogy — the goal towards 
which all other education should lead. 



384 XXV 

THE TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS 
DISEASE 

Heredity is the organic relation between living genera- 
tions. The transmission of colour-blindness from one 
generation to another is a case of heredity. What is 
commonly called the heredity of such diseases as 
syphilis, however, is not heredity, but infection. That 
is a necessary biological criticism, but for practical 
purposes we may and must associate this question with 
our brief stud}- of heredity in general. 

As is now well known in the case of lead, the poison 
of syphilis may affect the racial elements of which the 
body is the host, and thus may similarly have racial 
consequences. These, however, in the case of the syphi- 
litic poison are immeasurably more widespread an. 
ous and certain. Here, again, there is no infraction 
of the principle of Galton and Weismann that . 
is not inherited, or that you cannot produce t 
rats by cutting off the tails of parent rats. It is a 
case, not of heredity, but of infection — the exposure of 
germinal tissues to a poison reaching them through the 
blood of the individual body which is their host or 
temporary trustee: in such a case the most dishonest 
and villainous of trustees. The syphilitic parent is a 
trustee of the future who betrays this most sacred of 
all trusts. 

There is one point of difference between syphilis and 
lead, viz., that whilst lead is what we commonly call a 
chemical poison, the disease called syphilis is the prod- 
uct of a living organism (which has lately been dis- 
covered and is now quite well known). The d 
however, is really due to the complex poisons, just as 
"chemical" as lead is "chemical," which tins minute 
creature produces. The distinction between the two 
cases has practical aspects of the utmost moment, no 
doubt, since, owing to the production of the syphilitic 



TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 385 

poison by a living creature which can be transferred 
from one person to another, the disease is contagious 
or infectious, whereas lead-poisoning is not. This obvi- 
ously affects the question of marriage, quite apart 
from parenthood, and necessitates the discussion of 
syphilis in detail from this aspect alone. Further, it 
is to be remembered that the poisoning of a woman 
by syphilis will mean the poisoning of her future chil- 
dren to the remotest period, unless she be treated ade- 
quately. It does not suffice, as in the case of lead- 
poisoning, merely to remove her from danger. Chronic 
lead-poisoning involves the repeated introduction of the 
poison, but the introduction of a living organism, such 
as that of syphilis, on one occasion only, means in effect 
the most chronic of poisonings, since the microbe of 
the disease makes a home and a laboratory of its host, 
in whom it continuously manufactures its poisons from 
year to year, thereby poisoning the racial elements of 
whom the individual body should have been the in- 
violable host, admitting no such enemy to betray its 
trust. 1 

It is impossible to mention the subject of syphilis 
without protesting against the shameful and out- 
rageous crime which is perpetrated when a husband 
infects a wife with this disease. The law which hanged 
a child of nine in public — on the scaffold he cried for 

1 "Syphilis.— As this disease appears to be due to a specific 
•microbe, its reappearance in the offspring of syphilitic parents 
is not strictly a fact of inheritance. The father may infect 
his offspring without the mother being affected, and it is 
possible that the microbes may enter the ovum with the 
spermatozoon. The father may affect his offspring indirectly 
by first infecting the mother— that is, the microbe may pass 
through the placenta into the child. In certain cases— e.g., 
when conception occurs soon after the date of primary dis- 
ease—the probabilities of the offspring being infected are 
great, though there is always some uncertainty. Of twins, 
one may be infected and the other not. But the chances are 
so many that a patently syphilitic father will have syphilitic, 
or in some way deteriorated children, that the marriage of a 



386 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

his mother — four years before Queen Victoria came to 
the throne, for stealing something worth only a few 
pence, takes no cognisance of crimes for which, if for 
any, public execution would be a fitting penalty. It is 
no business of ours here to discuss the principles and 
objects and methods of punishment, but the time will 
assuredly come when posterity looks back upon us, as 
Ruskin declared that it will, "with incredulous disdain," 
for permitting such crimes to go unpunished and even 
unbranded to-day. 

If no words that can be summoned, no words that 
any language contains, are adequate to express the 
foulness of such crimes as these, nor even adequate to 
condemn the callousness of public, if not, indei 
medical, opinion in regard to them, what shall !.. 
of the transmission of syphilis to the child? The 
reader is tired, perhaps, of hearing that this or 
or the other is a scandal to our civilisation. II 
is a scandal BO scandalous that it is scandalous to 
mention it. The decent thing is to be Bllent about it, 
which is in effect to countenance it, to permit it, to be 
guilty for it in the eves of "whatever gods there be.'" 
There is no question as to the facts, there is no ques- 
tion as to the horror of them. There should be, for 
indeed there is, no question — and this is perhaps the 
most horrible fact of all — that public opinion could put 
an end to them if it chose And there lies the difficulty 
of the present writer in this case. There is nothing 
to argue about, there is nothing material to explain, 
there is nothing to discover, there is nothing even to 

patently syphilitic subject can only be called a crime — the 
more heinous since the disease in the offspring is often more 
serious than in the parent. It seems, furthermore, certain 
in the case of this disease that, apart from the specific ante- 
natal infection of offspring, the toxins produced by the 
microbes in the body of the parent or parents may induce 
general disturbance or debility of constitution in the germ- 
colls, and thus result in interior offspring.* 1 (^Thomson's 
"Heredity," p. 286.) 



TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 387 

present in a new light, there is nothing that requires 
illustration. There is nothing but a crying evil to 
name, the cry of which is so horrible that we have 
agreed to close our ears to it. What, then, can one 
do? What function can be served by putting pen to 
paper? One is at a standstill. It is useless to present 
the case, for every one knows the case ; it seems almost 
useless to make quotations from former writers, for 
every one knows what they have to say and what they 
have said. It is probably worse than useless to attempt 
to paint the foul picture again. The problem is not 
to present it, but to open people's eyes to it. This 
cannot be done by science. It is not to be done by the 
creation of a new agency, for we have churches already, 
we have schools, we have the medical profession, we 
have the press. If these do not suffice, what agency will? 
At least one must say outright what one believes. 
The subject under discussion is so urgent, so inexcusa- 
bly neglected, so incalculably pregnant with disaster, 
that it seems almost wrong to discuss anything else in 
the present volume lest we should lose our sense of 
proportion. Unbranded crimes of the most black- 
guardly description, for which, if we admit the prin- 
ciple of punishment at all, no penalty exacted by any 
code, ancient or modern, could be too severe, are daily 
committed — often with the blind blessing of the Church 
and mutual congratulations, which, in such cases, are 
appropriate only for the devil and his angels. It is 
always retorted to the advocate of eugenics — or con- 
scious, provident, and moral race-culture — that he 
knows little of heredity; that men of genius have no 
sons, or sons who are fools; that you ^ cannot make 
Shakespeares to order; or, by other critics, that the 
love which laughs at locksmiths will laugh at eugenics 
too. These criticisms are utterly irrelevant to the case 
of many criminal marriages now accepted by society 
without a word. We have made only a beginning with 



388 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

the study of heredity, but we know, and every adult 
man and woman knows, that there are diseases — some 
grave, some relatively slight — which are transmitted 
either with absolute certainty, or with all but absolute 
certainty. Paternity on the part of a man so afflicted 
— if not, indeed, marriage without paternity on the 
part of such a man — is a crime compared with which 
the ordinary criminal offence is a welcome pleasantry. 
But we have no imagination. We are like babies or 
politicians, who can associate cause and effect so long 
as there is not more than a second or two between 
them. Let but an hour be required, and they do not 
see the connection. In the most important of all cases 
of cause and effect, which is concerned with the con- 
tinuance of the people — the only wealth of nations — 
there is required an interval of many months at least, 
and, indeed, of many years, often amounting to decades, 
before the seed bears fruit — for the poisoning or the 
healing of the nations. And so, being babies, and hay- 
ing little imagination, thinking from hand to mouth, 
we fail to see the connection. We have sympathy. 
Show us present need, and we will remedy it. Do two 
deaf-mutes want to marry, and are their means scanty? 
— we will subscribe, and the devil take the future. Is 
this a feeble-minded little girl? — we will take care of 
her, as we should and must, and when she is eighteen 
off she goes to make room for another. Hence the 
chronic inebriate and the prostitute, the habitual thief, 
and the mother of many more such. But if ignorance 
in action and imagination without taste are as bad as 
Goethe declared, and if all sympathy depends upon 
imagination, may we not say that a little imagination 
is a dangerous thing? — Mrs. Grundy's, for instance, 
which goes far enough to see that the control of certain 
forms of disease may remove from what she calls vice 
the appallingly disproportionate penalty which is often 
exacted, but is inadequate to make her realise that the 



TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 889 

course she prescribes is one of the most fiendish 
brutality wreaked upon absolute innocence. 

Dr. Archdall Reid, with courage for which he is to 
be honoured, included a chapter on this subject in his 
book on "Alcoholism." It was really the most needed 
chapter in the book. Yet only the other day a dis- 
tinguished doctor said to me, in words which I noted 
at the time, "Look at Reid: he goes and writes an 
excellent book, and then spoils it all by putting in a 
chapter that disgusts everybody :" a pitiable comment 
on a brave effort. Nevertheless, I will quote from this 
distinguished student. 

He points out that when a disease is contagious — 
that is to say, requires direct contact for its com- 
munication — it is easy to control; just as when a 
disease is air-borne — such as scarlet fever, measles, 
chicken-pox, whooping-cough, and influenza — it is dif- 
ficult to control: for "we cannot disinfect the air." 
An instance of the controllable and controlled con- 
tagious diseases is rabies or hydrophobia; and proba- 
bly leprosy, which has also been banished from Eng- 
land, should be placed in this category. "The venereal 
diseases, because as easily controlled as rabies, should 
be as rare. Nevertheless, the community is ravaged by 
them." "If a man has small-pox we isolate him; if 
he comes from a plague-stricken ship we place him 
under medical observation, but if he has one of the 
venereal contagious diseases he is free to communicate 
it to his fellows — perhaps to the child he kisses or to 
the friend who drinks from his cup. What is the result ? 
. . . Very many Englishmen who reach adult life have 
suffered from one or more of these complaints; very 
many innocent Englishwomen are infected also; tens 
of thousands of helpless infants suffer or perish of 
them. . . . We bear with a heavy hand on poisoners 
who work by means of drugs. If a man poisons with 
arsenic and death results, we hang him by the neck. 



B90 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

. . . But for him who poisons wilfully with venereal 
disease we have no punishment. We insist merely that 
he shall do his poisoning in a particularly cruel and 
treacherous way. Any scoundrel knowingly and wil- 
fully may infect his innocent bride, causing her untold 
agony or death, and there is no legal remedy. One 
after another her babies may perish, but, forbidden by 
our moral code, the law will not stretch that arm which 
is so powerful against the childish robbers of an 
orchard. Vet who is there who would not die of lauda- 
num or of prussic acid rather than of this particular 
poison? Which of us is there that would not take the 
life of a sister or daughter with his own hands rather 
than permit her thus to perish. 91 "Not once or twice 
only have I seen an unfortunate and whollv innocent 
woman, happy till then in the knowledge of her own 
beauty, become monstrous, a horror, and an offence 
against the sun. Not once or twice only have I seen 
such an innocent one bear a succession of dead or 
dying children, or children that were better dead than 
alive." 

The chapter from which these quotations is taken 
is entitled by Dr. Keid, "The Great Procreation Fet- 
ish." The subject, as he ^ays. is taboo. Yet 
creation is under another aspect parenthood, which, 
at its best, is the most divine tiling we know. Thus 
conceived, it is not a fetish or false god, the i 
of a disastrous idolatry, but a true deity which all 
must reverence. It seems to me that if writers will only 
follow the terminology which is suggested by the 
of view of this book, they may freely discuss, without 
offence, clamant subjects which are at present treated 
with silence. The proper fashion in which to attack 
prudery, I believe, is by taking the high point of view 
and the language which it dictates. We have paid too 
great a price for prudery in the past, and we pay it 
to-day. It orders that we shall teach nothing about 



TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 391 

motherhood to our girls, so that when they become 
mothers, in their ignorance they slaughter their infants 
by tens of thousands. Hence the workers against 
infant mortality have had to fight for and obtain a 
measure which, where adopted, enables us to be informed 
of the birth of a baby within thirty-six hours. For 
twenty years we have had that mother to educate : the 
State has spent large sums of money upon her, and 
has had her under its eye for years. But all prepara- 
tion for — even the most distant allusion to — the 
supreme profession to which she will in all probability 
be one day called, has been indecent, and therefore 
taboo. These twenty years having gone, it is now a 
race for life against time to save her baby from its 
mother's ignorance. That is our method. Even 
heavier, perhaps, is the price of prudery in respect 
of the venereal diseases — a price yearly paid by tens 
of thousands of ignorant boys in their own persons, 
by young wives without number, and by their helpless 
babies — a price paid also by all of us in the support 
of that enormous number of insane and otherwise help- 
less persons who are the victims of these diseases. 
Let us in future speak in terms of parenthood and 
race-hygiene; let us preach from the supreme text of 
all human practice, that "there is no wealth but life," 
and in time we shall be heard. 

The reference has been made to insanity. Now there 
is a disease called general paralysis which for many 
decades past has become more frequent. It is abso- 
lutely hopeless so far as recovery is concerned. It is 
steadily increasing amongst women. One of the great- 
est of living students, Dr. Clouston, cites his experi- 
ence of thirty years. In the first decade 7.5 per cent. 
of the deaths among women under his care were due 
to general paralysis, in the second decade the percent- 
age was 9.7, in the third decade it was 12, whilst m the 
year following that decade (1904) the ratio was 23.5 



392 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

per cent. Dr. Robert Jones, the Resident Physician 
and Superintendent of the London County Asylum, 
Claybury, finds a percentage of 36.5 of the total deaths 
at Claybury in 1905 to be due to this disease, and he 
agrees with many other observers that its time of 
onset after infection is now shorter than formerly. He 
says : "We are able to say fairly definitely that syphilis 
is an almost constant antecedent of general paralysis, 
and yet we all say that syphilis is preventable. Why 
therefore not prevent it? Whilst conscientious object- 
ors and other faddists make themselves heard, the Legis- 
lature is silent about infection from this disease, which 
saps the energy and vitality, not only of the actual 
victim, but also of many innocent descendants." x 

Particularly significant is the notable increase of this 
disease amongst women. The clutches of syphilis, as 
of alcohol, upon womanhood, and therefore upon 
motherhood, potential or actual, and therefore upon 
the race — are tightening in our day. If that is the 
fact, what reader is there anywhere who cannot make 
the comment and the prophecy, if not the resolve? 

One cannot neglect the opportunity to quote from 
the most recent and careful and authoritative contribu- 
tion to the racial significance of syphilis." Dr. Mar- 
shall believes that the apparent hereditary tendency 
to disease of the arteries may sometimes be due to what 
is somewhat loosely termed hereditary syphilis. Our 
great authority, Dr. F. W. Mott, declares that. "Of 
all the causes of insanity, none writes with such a broad 
and indelible hand as syphilis." Note now the racial 
significance of this. Says Dr. Marshall: — 

"With regard to congenital mental instability, there 

1 "The Evolution of Insanity," Presidential Address 
Medico-Psychological Association of Great Britain and Ire- 
laud, iqoc> (Journal of Meni Dctober, ioooV 

- British Jon nal of Inebriety, January, iooS. "Alcohol and 
Syphilis." by Dr. C. F. Marshall, author of "Syphiloid 
Venereal Disease." 



TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 393 

is no doubt that hereditary syphilis is one of the chief 
factors in the production of congenital mental defects. 
Hereditary syphilis may cause arrest of intellectual 
development, varying in degree from defective intelli- 
gence to idiocy; the development of the brain being 
retarded by thickening of the scalp from syphilitic 
osteitis, by chronic meningitis, or by atresia of the 
cerebral arteries. 

"Syphilis, of all diseases, is the one most frequently 
transmitted to the offspring — in other words, one with 
the most hereditary effects. It is now known that the 
pathogenic microbe is transmitted from the mother to 
the foetus, and there is evidence also in support of 
direct paternal transmission by the semen. A number 
of cases have been collected in which syphilis was 
probably transmitted to the third generation, although 
it is difficult to exclude direct infection of the second 
generation. 

"In the family history of the insane we often meet 
with the terms 'insane heredity' or 'an inherited ten- 
dency to insanity,' &c. There is no doubt that a large 
proportion of this is really syphilitic heredity, or per- 
haps the combined effect of hereditary syphilis and 
parental alcoholism on the products of conception. 

"Alcohol and syphilis thus go hand in hand, and 
probably form the most disastrous of all pathological 
combinations. It is well known that a large amount 
of venereal disease is contracted while the victims are 
under the influence of alcohol. . . . Here it is alcohol 
which begins the chapter in pathology. Syphilis fol- 
lows, and may lead to general paralysis, especially if 
treated with contempt, or with more alcohol. Worse 
still, the uncured syphilitic may marry, and transmit 
the disease to his children, who may become feeble- 
minded or degenerate in various ways. Here we have 
the foundation of 'insane heredity,' which in a certain 
number of cases will lead to alcoholism and insanity. 



394 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

So the vicious circle goes on — alcohol — syphilis — 
syphilitic heredity — mental instability — alcoholism — 

insanity." 1 

Another venereal disease, also contagious, also pre- 
eminently preventable, is similarly ignored, though it 
offers abundant opportunities, which are abundantly 
taken, for the blackguardy infection of wives at all 
stages in the reproductive cycle. There is no question 
here of heredity in the strict biological sense of the 
term, but this disease furnishes the means by which 
many mothers, themselves morally innocent, then 
victims, infect the eves of their equally innocent but 
still more terribly victimised babies in the act of birth — 
at the very moment when the child's eyes first open 
upon the light. This is the chief cause of blind: 
this county, and probably in all vaccinated countries. 
(It is surpassed by small-pox in this respect in an 
unvaecinated country such as Russia, and was 
passed by small-pox everywhere a century 
According to a recent high authority, "among pupils 
in schools for the blind, who are usually under twenty 
years of age, we find that about thirty per cent, have 
lost their sight from this can- 

There arc, of course, many other causes of blind- 
ness, but venereal disease of an absolutely preventable 
character, which might be, should be, and in an edu- 
cated and decent age will be, unknown, is the chief 
cause of all blindness, and practically the only cause 
of what is called congenital blindness — the word ' 
genital" bring used for once accurately, >inee 
blindness dependent upon disease contracted at the 
moment of birth. We read that the Founder oi (, 
tianity saw "a man which was blind from his birth. 

1 The reader should acquaint himself with the brave and 
terrible play of P.rienx. Lc 

2 Encyclopedia Medic,:, vol. i., p. 511 






TRANSMISSION OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASE 395 



And His disciples asked Him saying, Master, who did 
sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 
The pathetic legends that we see upon the streets of 
any great city, even if we have never paid a visit to 
an institution for the blind, should remind us of this 
incident. ^ The answer to the question is that the victim 
did not sin, that the mother did not sin, that the father 
proximately sinned. Ultimately this awful calamity 
lies, however, at the door of society, itself afflicted with 
moral blindness of its own making. It is a monstrous 
thing that in this present age any baby should come 
into the world in any civilised country to receive, at 
the very moment when first it opens its eyes to the light 
of day, the wholly preventable infection which will blind 
them to that light forever. 

We have now come to the end of our brief study of 
the principal conditions of health, strength, and hap- 
piness. The maintenance of good brains r 
has been our object throughout, and in so 
far as we have forgotten it, in so far we have fallen 
beneath the proper level of a work on human hygiene, 
whatever may or may not be the proper level of a 
work on, shall we say, hippopotamus hygiene. In the 
last chapter or two we have endeavoured to recognise 
those given and largely inevitable conditions of inherit- 
ance with which every system of personal hygiene must 
reckon, and of which more and more will be heard in 
the near future. 

By "health" we have tried to mean health of mind 
and brain. As for health of body, that is worth attain- 
ing exactly because it is the necessary condition, or 
almost the necessary condition, of mental health. All 
human hygiene worthy of the name is in the long run 
the hygiene of mind. 

By "strength" we have tried to mean vitality, energy, 
power of endurance and resistance, of adaptation, and 



396 HEALTH STRENGTH AND HAPPINESS 

of unlimited mental growth. It may be left to those 
who are unacquainted with the merest rudiments of 
any relevant science to confuse strength with muscu- 
larity and to fancy that it can be estimated in foot- 
pounds. 

"Happiness" is a fine word, notwithstanding the 
scorn poured upon it by the opponents of the Victorian 
utilitarians. It is the fruit of many parents. A mere 
belief, true or false, may generate and maintain it in a 
body that is a mere breeding-ground of microbes. Let 
this be candidly admitted, and when we speak of infec- 
tious disease let us not forget disease of the emotions ; 
nor, in our study of hygiene, must we forget that men- 
tal health is fortunately most infectious too. But in 
the main we have been concerned with material things, 
and that quite legitimately. Perhaps it is not neces- 
sary to repudiate any suggestion that the writer 
regards the material point of view as complete in itself. 
When we come to study the building up of body and 
mind in childhood — really a much more hopeful if not 
more useful task than their maintenance in us of this 
generation, whose early education has left us in too 
many cases past praying for — we shall learn to what 
an astonishing extent the individual human mind i^ a 
social product, the fruit of the influence of imitation 
and suggestion upon inherited instincts : and shall 
thereby learn to what a great extent modern psychol- 
ogy empowers us, if we be only wise enough to use her 
implements, to put the material in its necessary but 
humble place, and to recognise that man is not only 
a mind, but in very large measure a product of mind, 
for we are parts of all that we have met, and we are 
known by the company we keep because we are in large 
measure products of that company. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Abdomen, the clothing for, 74 

exercise of, 100, 287 

Abdominal wall, the, description 

of, 75 
Adaptability, human, 11, 26, 60, 

61, 102, 103, 121, 186, 229 
Adenoids, results of, 343 

source of infection, 343 

Advertisements of patent medi- 
cines, 144, 146-150 
Air, liquid, 37 

as food, 228 

bad, effect of, on the lungs, 

231 

fresh, its artificial creation, 

37 
night, long standing mis- 
trust of, 30 

night, its properties, 36 

Alcohol, 66, 117, 136, 139 

failure of, as a drug, 136, 

137, 168, 173 
in the treatment of pneu- 
monia, 157 

relation of, to infectious 

diseases, 158 

and hydrophobia, 158 

action on phagocytes, 156, 

158 

and fever, 160, 182 

action of, on the brain, 161 

and motoring, 163 

a destroyer of self-control, 

164 

a false stimulator of the 

wits, 164- 

and the social sciences, 167 

and crime, 167 

and life insurance, 167 

food value of, 168-172 

the consumption of, legis- 
lation to check the, 168 
chemical composition of,170 



Alcohol, action of, on the stom- 
ach, 175 

action of, on the digestion, 

174 

action of, on the heart, 175 

action of, on the blood, 176 

in fainting, 175 

a cause of stoutness, 177 

and the warmth of the body 

179 * 
a cause of pneumonia, 180, 

277 

and meat, 182 

a cause of tuberculosis, 183 

and the State, 199 

and the racial instinct, 360, 

361 

and childhood, 361 

and syphilis, 393 

and insanity, 393 

"Alcohol, The Influence of, and 

Other Drugs on Fatigue," by 

Rivers, 188 
"Alcohol, the Sanction for its 

Use, &c." by Starke, 189 
"Alcohol and Syphilis," by Dr. 

C. F. Marshall, 392 n. 
"Alcohol and the HumanBody," 

by Horsley and Sturge, 188 
"Alcoholism," by Sullivan, 188 
"Alcoholism," by Dr. Archdall 

Reid, 389 
Anaemia, 29 
Anti- toxin, 138 
Appendicitis, commonest among 

young men, 282 
Appetite, fresh air as a cause of, 

36 
the guide to diet, 235, 238, 

303 

the education of the, 238 

variations of, 239 

of children, 240 



398 



INDEX 



Army, British, harmful drill reg- 
ulations of the, 88 

Arnica, misconception as to the 
value of, 136 

Arteries, the health of, the cri- 
terion of age, 312, 315 

the, how to keep young, 313 

Arterio-sclerosis, prevalence of, 
308 

results of, 308 

Asceticism, the merits of, 14 

and sleep, 108 — 

the new and the old, 14, 85, 

235, 357 

"Autobiography," the, of Her- 
bert Spencer, 21, 326 

" A varies, Les/ ' by Brieux, 394 n 

Back, pains in the, 146 

Baldness, hard hats a cause of, 
52 

■ immaterial, 295 

Barley and barley-water, 223 

Bath, the cold, merits and de- 
merits of, 291 

the warm, merits of, 291 

the Turkish, 290 

Beauty, facial, inconsequence of, 
292 

Bed-clothes, 116 

Bedrooms, separate, for mar- 
ried people, 115 

ventilation of, 116 

Beds, right and wrong position 
of, 36 

single preferable, 116 

width of, 116 

Beer, pure, 209 

schoolboys and, 199, 361 

Biscuits, value of, 217 

Bleeding coming into vogue 
again, 269 

Blindness, congenital, 394 

small-pox as a cause of, 394 

Blood, as a blood-making food, 
fallacy about, 250 

pressure, high, dangers of, 

314 

Body, the, subservient to the 
mind, 16, 172 



Body, of longer life than the 

mind, 18 
its normal temperature the 

same for all climates, 60, 61 
exists primarily for the 

cells, 343 
Boots, American, 81 
how they should be made, 

81, 82 

evils of tight, 52, 53 

Bowels, best time for action of 

the, 104, 105, 284 

education of the, 283, 285 

hypnotism and action of 

the, 283 
frequency of action of the, 

283 
Boyhood and puberty, 346 
"Bradyfagy," 279 
Brain, creation of, 22 
the, maintenance of, 22, 

23 
should rest during sleep, 

104 
Bread, its economic value, 213, 

214, 215 

versus meat, 213 

germ, 216 

most wholesome colour for, 

216 
brown versus white, 216, 

217 

how to eat, 218 

crusts versus crumb, 216 

new versus stale, 218 

and politics, 219 

"Bread Reform League, The," 

218 
Breakfast, appetite for, 36 

temper, the, 114 

Breathing through the nose, 

71 

correct, 38, 39, 72, 73 

normal, 74 

deep, importance of , 90. 100 

Breeding, systematic, influence 

of, on the human race. 37S 
Bright 's disease, 2SS 
"British Journal of Inebriety, 

The," 162, 1S2, 1S5, 392 n. * 



INDEX 



Bunions, prevention and cure of, 
81,82 

Caffeine, 193, 194 

Carbonic acid, its hypnotic in- 
fluence, 37 

less in the blood during 

sleep, 104 

Caries, dental, caused by mi- 
crobes, 296 

— — prevalence of, 297 

Cats, 120 

Celibacy, 348 

Chapping, defective drying the 
cause of, 293 

remedies for, 293 

Chauffeurs, total abstainers, 164 

Chess, mental recreation, 98 

Chest protector, absurdity of 
the, 70 

Chewing, importance of, 
thorough, 245, 246 

Child-bearing, foresight in, 382 

Childhood, its need of sleep, 107, 
112 

the mind of, 316 

Children, the society of, 317 

rejuvenating power of, 317, 

318 

China tea, 194 

Christian Science, 12, 101 

Church bells, 119 

Claybury Asylum, 392 

Clock, the tyranny of the, 115 

Clocks, striking, 119 

Clothes, the origin and evolution 
of, 50 

the functions of, 51 

relation of, to food, 51, 52 

material of, 52 

tight, and their results, 52, 

53, 54, 74 

must be absorbent, 55 

harbourers of germs, 58, 59 

for hot weather, 62, 

Coal, the misuse of, 49 

Cocoa, food value of, 198 

Coffee and insomnia, 117 

as a stimulant, 161, 202 

use of, 196 



Coffee, how to make, 197 

"Cold, catching," 29, 30 

Collars, 68, 69 

Coma, 110 

Constipation, 76, 100 

causes and prevalence of, 

281, 282 

results of, 282 

and diet, 287 

and drugs, 285 

Consumption, bad air as a cause 
of, 27 

extermination of, by ven- 
tilation, 29 

treatment of, 30, 72 

superstition about, 29, 313 

as a cause of death to 

cricketers, 35 

early location of, 72 

noise of cities an indirect 

cause of, 119 

propagated by the public- 
house, 184, 185 

Continence does not prejudice 
potency, 349 

Cooking, 261 
of meat, 261 

Corsets, evils of, 53, 77 

Cosmetics, injurious results of 
the use of, 293 

Cretinism, 138, 142 

Cricket and cricketers, refer- 
ences to, 35, 94, 249, 280, 304, 
311, 312, 313, 316, 328, 346 

Cures, recondite, the passion for, 
41, 42 

"Cycle of Life, The," by Dr. 
Saleeby, 153 n. 

Day-Dreaming, 110 
Daylight character of, 330 
Daylight-saving, advantages of, 

329 
Deafness, causes of, 336 

treatment of, 341 

quacks and, 341 

Death, premature, 18 
Dentifrice, its composition, 300 
Dentistry, the best the cheapest, 

297 



400 



INDEX 



Dentists, American, reason for 
their superiority, 219 

" Descent of Man, The," 376, 
376 n. 

De Senectute of Cicero, 323 

Diet, the conflict of, 226 

Diets, ideal, 241 

mixed, the best, 261 

vegetable, 262 

Diets, dangers of excessive and 
insufficient, 266 

for constipation, 287 

Digestion, gastric,duration of, 10 

should rest during sleep, 104 

to what extent aided by- 
alcohol, 174 

■ the part of the mouth in, 

246, 247 

the processes of, 248 

and introspection, 249 

Diphtheria, the anti-toxin treat- 
ment of, 138 

Dirt of towns, 69 

Diseases, fewness of, 139 

Distemper for walls, 47 

Doctors, characteristic treat- 
ment of, 125 

and drugs, 125 

Dogs, 120 

Draughts of air, 32 

Dreams, 110, 111, 116 

day, 110 

waking, 112 

visual, 118 

auditory, 336 

"Drink Problem, The," by 
fourteen medical authorities, 
183, 188 

Drinking, the good of, 2S9, 290 

Drugs, patent, evils of, 131-132 

the history of, 132, 133 

vegetable, the failure of, 144 

mineral, 135 

animal, 137 

the relevance of, to human 

disease, 138 

the future of, 141 

and constipation, 285 

Drying, defective, the cause of 
chapping, 293 



Dumb-bells, 92, 94, 96, 99 
Dyspepsia. See Indigestion 

Eak, its construction, 341 
Ear-lids, artificial, 119, 336 
Ear quack, dangers of the, 

341 
Eating, when undesirable, 241 

correct, 245 

slower, less food, 270 

"Economic nutrition," 271 
Education, the evils of present- 
day, 317, 324 
the results of, not trans- 
missible, 376, 377 

mental destruction, 383 

eugenic, 383 

racial, the disastrous neg- 
lect of, 391 
"Education," by Herbert Spen- 
cer, 50, 86, 93, 94, 238 
Emotion, definition of, 99 

pleasant and unpleasant, a 

cause of insomnia, 123 
Emotions and eating, 242 
Eton jackets, 70 
Eugenic education, 376, 383 
Eugenics, Spencer and Darwin 
on, 375 

Education Society, The, and 

the social "evil," 364 
"Evolution of Insanity, The," 

by Dr. Robert Jones, 392 
Exercise, the value of, 76, 87, 
290 

effect of, on the heart, 88, 89 

effect of, on the lungs, 90 

effect of, on the liver, 90 

outdoor better than indoor, 

91 
natural better than arti- 
ficial, 92-94 

unconscious, the value of, 

94 

relation of, to food, 96-99 

E}-e, secondary purpose of, 326 

the marvellous mechanism 

of, 333 
danger of gonorrhoea in- 
fection to, 335 



INDEX 



401 



Eye strain, causes of, 325, 330, 
362 

Factory Commission, the, 27 
Fat, the merits and demerits of, 

304-306 
Fatigue and eating, 241, 242 
Feather beds, evils of, 58, 116 
Feet, cold, 79 
tight boots a cause of, 

53 

warm, 118 

Fever, modern treatment of, 178 
a symptom, not a disease, 

181 

Malta, 211 

cold water and, 233, 267, 

268 
Finsen light treatment, the, 43, 

47 
Fish, of equal food value to 

meat, 262 
the most digestible kind of, 

262 
Flannel, as a clothing material, 

54 
"Fletcherism," 243, 244, 276, 

277, 299 

and the bowel, 281, 282, 283 

Fluid, all food assimilated as, 
245, 246 

Fog, 39, 49 

Food, in relation to clothes, 51, 
52 

the kind of, relative unim- 
portance of, 190 

"Food and the Principles of 
Dietetics," by Dr. Hutchison, 
195, 264 

Food, solid, the passion for, 
205 

the cheapest, 213, 214 

Food as fuel, 273, 274 

poisoning, chronic, 23, 273, 

278, 279 

stuffs, the production of, 

subservient to politics, 222 
Foot, arch of the, 79 
"Force," 220 
Fruit, necessity of, 287 



Fuel-food, the disposal of, by the 

body, 274, 275 
Furniture, useless, 45, 46 

Games, as exercise, 94 

ball, 95, 316 

Garters, evils of, 52, 78 
General paralysis, 391 
Germ-cells, the relation of, to 

the body, 344 
Germ-plasm, the human control 

over, 368, 371, 382 
Glaucoma, 334 
Golf, its merits, 94, 95 
Gonorrhoea, and blindness, 335, 

394 

alcohol an ally of, 361 

and sterility, 362 

inter-sex contagion by, 362, 

and women, 363 

Gout, 79 

"Grape-nuts," 220 
Gymnastics, 99, 100 
Herbert Spencer on, 93 

Habits, formation of, 10, 13 

Haemophilia, 379 

Hair, ornamental value of, 64 

destroyed by hats, 293 

preservation of the, 294 

the colour of the, 295 

grey, 312 

Hallucinations, lack of sleep a 

cause of, 108 
"Hamlet," quoted, 381 
Handkerchiefs, as germ carriers, 

59 
Happiness, the best tonic, 93, 94 

human, 396 

Hats, ornamental, not useful, 
65 

tight, evils of, 66 

unnecessity of, 67 

destroyers of the hair, 293 

Head, importance of v/ashing the 
65, 6C, 67, 293, 294 

covering for the, 67 

Health, human definition of, 395 
Heart, effects of excessive exer- 
cise on the, 88, 89, 98 



402 



INDEX 



Heart, effect of sleep on the, 103 

Heels, 79 

Heels, rubber, 80 

protection of the, 80 

high, evils of, 80 

Heredity and environment, 366 

the power of, 366 

influence of environment 

on, 367 

better than culture, 296 

contagious diseases and, 

384 
"Heredity" by Prof. Thomson, 

386n. 
Herrings, best and cheapest 

fish food, 262 
Hemorrhoids, 281, 286 
Homoeopathy, 267 
Hydrophobia, alcohol and, 158 
"Hygiene of Mind, The," by 

Dr. Clouston, 128, 188, 323 
" Hygiene of Nerves and Mind," 

by Forel, 188 
Hypnotics, 126, 131 

artificial, 105 

natural, 105, 127-128 

the dangers of, 142 

Hypochondria, 9 
and sex, 350, 351 

"Immortality of the germ- 
plasm," the, 368, 370 

Indigestion, a common cause 
of insomnia, 105, 116, 124- 
125 

"Influence of Alcohol and Other 
Drugs on Fatigue, The," 
by Rivers, 188 

Inhaling, the, of tobacco smoke, 
200 

Insanity, syphilis a cause of, 
392 

Insomnia, caused by irregular 
sleep, 109 

by heat, 118 

by light, 118 

by noise, 119 

by emotion, 121, 123 

by indigestion, 105, 124- 

125 



Insomnia, by caffeine, 196 
treatment of, by drugs, 

125 
philosophic treatment of, 

129, 130 
Internal secretion, the principle 

of, 358 
Introspection, the evils of, 249 
Invalids, crime of waking, 113 

Japan, use of milk in, 211 
Japanese, the, their furniture, 

46 
"John Brown's Body," 339 
"Journal of Mental Science, 

The," 392n. 

Kidneys, the, 288 

at rest during sleep, 104 

Knees, the, 77, 78 
"Kubla Khan," 161 

Lamarckian view, the, of trans- 
mission, 373 
Larynx, care of the, 342 
Lead poisoning, 384, 385 
Leucocytes, the, description of, 

154 

function of, 155 

in action, 156 

Light, as food, 231 

the source of energy, 232 

influence of, on the skin, 

43 
action of, on the pupil of 

the eye, 331 
artificial, the ideal, 329, 

330 

soft character of, 330 

Listerism, 276 

Liver, the, effect of exercise on, 

90 
Lungs, the, health of, 73 

effect of exercise on, 90 

effect of sleep on, 104 

Lupus, light treatment of, 43 

47 

"Macbeth," quoted, 370 
Maize, 222 






INDEX 



403 



Malaria, derivation of the name, 
34 

cause of, 34 

Malta fever, 211 

"Man is as old as his arteries, 
a," 306, 308 

Man, his desire to be conspicu- 
ous, 68 

Mankind, the adaptability of, 
11, 12, 26, 60, 61 

Man, adaptability of, 229 

various diet of, 229 

"Marriage and Disease, " 359n 

Mastication, importance of, 245 

use of, 245 

Meals, rest after, 249 

solitary, 243 

reading at, 244 

Meat, delusions about the vir- 
tues of, 252 

the trend against, 257, 264, 

271 

and uric acid, 259 

how often to eat, 261 

the cooking of, 260 

raw, the most digestible, 

261 

diet, effect of, on rats, 

257 

influence of, on the thy- 
roid gland, 259 

increase of, 261 

extracts, Liebig's dictum 

on, 255 

delusion about, 252 

Medical opinion, changes in, 
267 

Medicines, patent, 143 

cost price of, 144 

merits and demerits of, 145 

" Meistersinger, Die," 340 

Mendelism, the meaning of, 
378 

and certain diseases, 379 

Middle-age, the producer of the 
best work, 306, 307 

Milk, the ideal human food, 204 

powdered, 205 

the only natural food, 206, 

255 



Milk, impure, 209 

dilution of, 209 

for adults, 210 

and tuberculosis, 211 

Mind, of shorter life than the 

body, 18, 19 
young, persistence of the, 

in age, 308 

and muscle, 311 

death of the, 322 

Minds, young and old, 316 
Motoring and alcohol, 163 164 
Mouth-breathing, causes of, 39 
Muscle, the cult of, 84 

disadvantages of, 85 

Muscle tissue, as muscle-making 

food, 250 
Muscular exercise, by-products 

of, 87 
Music, uses of, 337 

as a healing power, 337 

hygienic, and unhygienic, 

338, 340 
"Music-hall mind, the," 309 
Myopia, modern, 327 

advantages of, 327 

causes of, 327, 328 

among children, statistics 

of, 328 

Nahcotics, 124 

"Nature of Man, The," by 
Metchnikoff, 352 

Neptune, the discovery of, 276 

Neuralgia, bad teeth, a cause of, 
298 

Neurasthenia, a quack remedy 
for, 147 

Nicotine, 199 

Nightmares, 111 

Noise of cities, 118 

an indirect cause of con- 
sumption, 119 

a cause of insomnia, 119 

of London streets, a 

French opinion on, 120 

Noise of motors, 120 

of cats, 120 

of dogs, 120 

a cause of deafness, 336 



404 



INDEX 



Noisy toys, children and, 337 
Nose, the, breathing through, 

38, 343 

the, function of, 38 

Nursing of children, influence 

of a meat diet on the, 257 

Oatmeal, 215 

and the physique of the 

Scot, 221 

Oats, 221 

"Quaker", 221 

Obesity, not necessarily caused 
by over-eating, 305 

Oculist, advisability of consult- 
ing a qualified, 334 

Old age synonymous with chron- 
ic food poisoning, 280 

Dr. Keith on, 323 

Dr. Clouston on, 323 

Old Testament, the, 237 

Optimism, the value of, 320 

Optician, danger of consulting 
an, 334 

Organisation of the body, the, 
248 

Over-eating, 83, 87, 96, 269 

the results of, 269 

most prevalent in summer, 

303 

"John Bull" typical of 304 

not always a cause of obe- 
sity, 305 

a cause of arterial degenera- 
tion, 307 

a cause of senility, 312 

Over-work, effect of, on sleep, 
121, 122 

Oxygen, the use of, 37 

the means of supplying, 

37 

Ozone, 37 

Parent-hood, rejuvenation by, 

318 

when a sin, 369 

when a duty, 369 

the power of, a trust, 

372 
Patent medicines, 281 



"Pennsylvania Society for the 
Prevention of Social Disease," 
objects of the, 364 

Peppermint, a cure for the 
smoking habit, 203 

Perpetual youth, the secret of, 
319 

Perspiration, the odour of, the 
cause of, 289 

a cleansing agent, 289 

Pessimism, the evils of, 320 

Pharmacology, the future teach- 
ing of, 141 

Plants, function of, as oxygen- 
ators, 37 

"Plea for a Simpler Life," by 
Dr. Keith, 117n., 266, 269n. 

Pneumonia, the cause of, super- 
stition about, 30 

alcohol in treatment of, 158 

alcohol a cause of, 180, 277 

Politicians, the value of, 302 

Politics and food, 222 

Pornography, 353 

Porridge, the decline of, as the 
Scotsman's food, 258 

and the thyroid gland, 259 

Premature death, 310 

Print, the best for reading, 333 

"Proceedings of the Royal So- 
ciety of Edinburgh." 257 

"Prolongation of Life, The," 
by Metchnikoff, 278 

Proteid, necessity of, to the 
body, 228 

amount of, necessary, 272 

diet, low, results of, 276 

food, the disposal of, by 

the body, 274, 276 

Prudery, the curse of, 346, 383, 
390 

Puberty, the phenomena of, 346 

influence of, on the savage, 

353 

Public-house, the, a spreader 
of consumption, 184, 185 

"Putting on flesh," 305 

Quack, and the racial instinct, 
349 



INDEX 



405 



Quack, and venereal disease, 316 
"Quick lunch," the, 244 
Quinine, the cure for malaria, 
134, 137 

RaciAL desire, activity the an- 
tidote for, 356 

function, exercise of the, 

unnecessary for its preserv- 
ation, 350 

health, 351 

instinct, the development 

of, 345 

the, strength of, 347 

evolution of, 347 

foresight in the use 

of, 381 

danger of ignoring, 

383 

organs, the, make the man, 

350, 358, 359 

poisons, 374 

Railways, the noise of, 119 

Reading in bed, 117 

Recreation is exercise, 96 

Regent Street shops, their in- 
sanitary condition, 27 

Respirator, the, 38 

Rest, to what extent a substi- 
tute for sleep, 105 

Retrospection, evils of, 321 

Rice, how to cook, 224 

"Roast beef of Old England 
party/' the, 252 

Rowntree's, Messrs., Cocoa 
Works, 331 

Saliva, its use in digestion, 248 
"Salome," Strauss's, 340 
Sand-bags, evils of, 30 
Sarsaparilla, the failure of, 136 
"Sartor Resartus," 50 
"Saul," Browning's, 338 
"Savage Childhood," by Dudley 

Kidd, 355 
Scalp, ventilation of the, 38 
Schoolrooms, defective light- 
ing of, 332 
Sea water, why it does not 
give cold, 30 



Selection, the supreme instru- 
ment of race-progress, 377 

human, Spencer on, 375 

of a child's parents, 381 

Self-control, destroyed by al- 
cohol, 164 
Senility, skin deep, 312 

causes of, 312 

Sex and hypochondria, 350 

the transmutation of, 354, 

356, 357, 382 

the source of the higher 

activities of man, 354, 356 
"Sexuelle Frage, Die," by For- 

el, 353 
Shirts, flannel, 69 
Short-sight. See Myopia 
Singing, a preventive of con- 
sumption, 90 
Skin, excretory function of, the, 

288 
Sleep, the tyranny of, 15 

importance of, 102 

ignorance of the causes of, 

102 

the function of, 103 

rest of the organs and 

senses during, 103-106 

and childhood, 107 

and the children of the 

poor, 107 
lack of, cause of hallucina- 
tions, 108 
Sleep, irregular, a cause of in- 
somnia, 109 

good and bad, 110 

normal, 110 

early hours of, most val- 
uable, 112 

and mental work, 115 

and physical work, 115 

how to induce, 116 

effect of over-work on, 121 

and old age, 12.8 

Sleeplessness. See Insomnia 
Small-pox, a cause of blindness, 

394 
Smell, the function of, 57 

\£ the sense of, 343 

Smoking, juvenile, 201 



406 



INDEX 



Smoking and the heart, 201 

how to control, 202 

blind men and, 203 

Soap, presence of alkali in, in- 
jurious, 293 

"Social evil, the," 352 

" Social Psychology," by Dr. 
Mac-Dougall, 360 

Socks, 78 

Soldiers, automatic machines, 
88 

Solid food, the passion for, 205 

Sponges, evils of, 292 

Starch, "white mud," 68 

"Starving doctor," the, 267 

Stockings, 78 

Strength, human, definition of, 
395 

"Study of Sociology," by Her- 
bert Spencer, 376, 376n. 

Sugar, food value of, 170 

children and, 234 

dislike of, the result of 

vitiated taste, 276 

Surgery, antiseptic, 140 

Swimming, as exercise, 97 

Syphilis, 136, 371 

transmission of, by con- 
tagion, 384, 392 

and marriage, 384-385 et 

seq. 

a cause of insanity, 392 

"Syphilology and Venereal Di- 
sease," by Dr. C. F. Mar- 
shall, 392 n. 

"Tannhauser," 340 
Tannin, action of, 193, 194 
Tartar, as a protector of the 

teeth, 300 
Tea, 117 

composition of, 193 

how to make, 195 

consumption of, 196 

China, 195 

Teeth, the part of, in digestion, 

246 

good use of, results of, 248 

the care of^ 300 

and the tooth-brush, 299 



Teeth of children, statistics con- 
cerning, 301 

the question of, in 

Germany, 302 

artificial, merits and de- 
merits of, 246 

decayed, a source of infec- 
tion, 296, 301 

a cause of blood- 
poisoning, 298 

a door to microbes, 

298 

modern, the decadence of, 

298 
Temperature of the body, 60, 61 
Therapeutics, the new, 138, 142 
Thyroid gland, influence of 

foods on the, 259 
"Till Eulenspiegel," 340 
"Time and Tide," Ruskin, 376n. 
Toast, value of, 217 
Tobacco, amount of nicotine, 

in, 199 

inhaling the smoke of, 203 

a poison, 200 

chewing, 201 

changing one's, 203 

Toe-nails, ingrowing, 82 
Toes, the, 81, 82 
Tonsils, large, results of, 343 
"Too old at forty," 310 
Tooth-brush, the, criticised, 296 
unnecessary to the savage, 

299 

how to use a, 299 

Touch, the sense of, 343 
Transmissibility, non-, the, of 

acquired characters, 373 

Galton on, 372, 3S4 

Weismann on, 372, 375, 

384 

Spencer on, 375, 376. 377 

Darwin on, 375. 376, 377 

"Tristan und Isolde," 340 

Trousers, 70 

Tuberculosis, bad teeth and, 

29S. See also Consumption. 

Ultra- violet rays, the antisep- 
tic value, of, 43 



INDEX 



407 



Uric acid and meat, 259 
Urine, colour of, not a cause 

for anxiety, 288 

Varicose veins, caused by gar- 
ters, 52 

Vegetable kingdom, antagonis- 
tic to the animal kingdom, 
133-136 

Vegetable proteid, 264 

Vegetables, the necessity of, 
262 

difficulty of digesting, 263 

Vegetarianism, 250 

the drawbacks of, 262 

Venereal disease, 361 

control of, 389 

Ventilation by windows, 33 

by chimneys, 33 

Veronal, 127 

Vitality, not a question of mus- 
cle, 101 

greater in women than 

men, 101 

Voice, care of the, 342 

Voice-specialists, 342 

Waistcoats, 70, 74 
Waking, normal, 112 
Walking, the merits of, as ex- 
ercise, 97 



Wall-papers, colour and pat- 
tern of, 46, 47, 332, 
Washing, importance of, over- 
rated, 289 

internal, 289 

Water, drinking, dangers of, 208 

filtering, 208 

Wheat, the future of, 219 

successive crops of, 220 

the products of, enumera- 
ted, 220 
"Wheat, Shredded," 220 
"Wheat Problem, The," by 
Sir William Crookes, 224 
Whisky, 209 
"Will-power," 202 
Windows, ventilation by, 33, 36, 

336 
Women, of greater vitality than 
men, 101 

longer lived than men, 101 

Work, mental, and sleep, 115 

physical, and sleep, 115 

at night, 117, 122-123 

Worry, the negation of rest, 106 
"Worry," by Dr. Saleeby, 337 

Youth, perpetual, the secrets of 
319 



INDEX OF NAMES OF PERSONS MENTIONED 
OR QUOTED 



Abbot, 158 

Allbutt, Prof. Clifford, 314 

Aristotle, 278 

Bach, 339, 340 

Barnes, Prof. Earl, 309 

Bateson, Prof., 378 

Baudron, 184 

Beethoven, 235, 339, 340 

Biff en, Prof., 220 

Bordet, 159 

Brahms, 340 

Brieux, 394n. 

Browne, Sir Thomas, 163 

Browning, Robert, 321, 338 

Brunton, Sir Lauder, 203, 219 

Buff on, 20n. 

Burke, 140 

Cab-bury, Mr., 198 
Cakebread, Jane, 167 
Carlyle, 50, 225, 
Chittenden, Prof., 235, 256, 264, 

265, 271, 272, 278, 279 
Church, Prof., 217 
Cicero, 323 
Clayton, 44 
Clouston, Dr. T. S., 128, 188, 283 

323, 391 
Cohn, 329 
Coleridge, S. T.. 161 
Crichton-Browne, Sir James, 271 
Crookes, Sir William, 219, 224 
Crowley, Dr. Ralph, 184 

Darling, Grace, 35 

Darwin, 30, 61, 68, 81, 293, 333, 

375, 376 
Davies, Dr., 185, 
Delearde, 158 
Dewar, Sir James, 37 



Dickinson, Dr., 183 
Disraeli, 12 

Dukes, Dr. Clement, 361 
Duncan, Miss Isadora, 325 

Eccles, W. M'Adam, 162 
Edison, Mr., 270 

Flammarion, 44 

Fletcher, Mr. Horace, 235, 256, 

270, 271, 272, 276, 277, 279 
Forel, Prof. August, 188, 320, 

323, 353 
Foster, Sir Michael, 271 

Galileo, 10, 278 

Galton, Francis, 310, 373, 374, 

384, 
Gluck, 340 

Gcethe, 309, 356, 388 
Goodfellow, Dr., 214 
Gould, Dr., 326 

Haggarb, Rider, 318 
Hall, Prof. Stanley, 354 
Handel, 340 
Harte, Bret, 48n. 
Hawkesley, Messrs., of Oxford 

Street, 336 
Helmholtz, 333 
Hippocrates, 268n. 
Hobbes, 313 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 131 
Horsley, Sir Victor, 188, 189, 

360 
Hutchison, Dr., 195, 197, 198, 

215, 218, 264, 271 
Huxley, 168, 310 
Hyslop, Dr., 120 

Jackson, Dr. Hughlings, 165 



410 



/ 

INDEX 



>/ 






James, Prof. W., 381 
Jones, Dr. Robert, 392 

Kant, 374 

Keith, Dr. George, 117, 130, 266, 

267 323 
Kelvin, Lord, 310, 374 
Kidd, Mr. Dudley, 355 
Koch, 211 
Kraepelin, Prof., 161, 163, 164, 

189 

Laitinen, 158 
Liebig, Baron, 255 
Locke, John, 32, 325 
Lucretius, 368 

Macbeth, 370 

Marshall, Dr. C. F., 392 

Massart, 159 

Mendel, Abbot, 220, 377 

Metchnikoff, Prof., 85, 141, 155, 
156, 157, 158n., 163, 176, 189, 
238, 278, 279, 280, 282, 315, 
352 

Mill, John, Stuart, 356 

Milton, 139 

Mosso, Prof., 86 

tfott, Dr. F. W., 392 
lozart, 340 

1* apoleon, 130, 252, 270, 376 
Iveisser, Prof., 362 
Newman, 322 
Newton, Sir Isaac, 270 
Niven, Dr. James, 185 

Osler, Professor, 131, 310 

Parker, Archbishop, 378 
Pasteur, 30, 31, 42, 133, 155 
Pawlow, 253 
Pettenkofer, 235 
Pinero, A. W., 353 
Platen, 44 
Plato, 237 



Rayleigh, Lord, 330 
Reid, Dr. Archdall, 354, 38 

390 J' 

Richet, Prof., 260 
Rivers, Dr. W. H. R., 188 
Roberts, John, billiard champio. 

311 
Rowntree, Mr., 198, 331 
Ruskin, 325, 339, 376n., 386 

Schiller, 18, 310, 322 
Schofield, Dr. A. T., 284 
Shakespeare, 237, 360, 387 
Shaw, Bernard, 68, 257 
Spencer, Herbert, 21, 50, 8( 
92, 93, 190, 237, 238, 257, 26£ 
271, 286, 317, 326, 352, 35^ 
374, 376, 376n., 382 
Starke, Dr. J., 189 
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 112 
Sturge, Dr. Mary D., 188 
Strauss, 340 
Sullivan, Dr. W. C, 188 



37C 



Thomson, Prof. J. A 

386n. 
Thoreau, 110 

Treves, Sir Frederick, 268 
Tschaikowsky, 340 

Verne, Jules, 42 
Virchow, 358 
Voltaire, 132, 133, 378 
Von Behring, 157 



Wagner, 340 
Wallace, Dr. Sim, 296 
Wallis, Mr. Edward, 301 
Watson, Dr. Chalmers. 258 
Weber, Sir Hermann, 117 
Weismann, 371, 372, 373, 37-^ 

375, 3S4 
Wellington, the Duke of, 27C 
White, Dr. Hale. 260 
Woodhead, Prof. Sims. 173, IS 
Wordsworth, 237, 317. 338 



n™, ARY 0F CONGRESS 



.0 022 169 856 3 



